VietNamNet Bridge - Despite great efforts by district authorities, primary schools in Hanoi remain overloaded. There are 60 students per class at most primary schools in Hanoi. 

 

At Tu Hiep School in Gia Lam district and Hoang Hoa Tham School in Tay Ho district, there are more than 60 students a class. Ha Dong and Hoan Kiem district local authorities complain that the number of students keeps increasing though classrooms all are overcrowded.

Deputy headmaster of Duong Xa Primary School Nguyen Thi Kieu Thuy complained that it is very difficult to organize lessons in such conditions. 

Many schools in Hanoi have been asked to follow VNEN, the new school model for Vietnam, under which students sit in groups, while tables are re-arranged to fit the teaching in the groups. However, the high number of students in every class makes this impossible.

“You’ll find it difficult to take care of all students at the same time if there are too many students,” she explained.

Despite great efforts by district authorities, primary schools in Hanoi remain overloaded. There are 60 students per class at most primary schools in Hanoi.

“You cannot find out if some students are not concentrating on lessons, and therefore, students will not be able to catch up with the lessons,” she added. 

Pham Xuan Tien, deputy director of the Hanoi Education and Training Department, noted classes were more crowded because of the high population growth. 

“More and more multi-story buildings have arisen in the city,” he noted. “Meanwhile, under the national program on primary education universalization, schools must receive all children in the same districts. This has led to the overloading.”

Hundreds of new classrooms were put into use in the 2014-2015 academic year, but have not met the increasingly high demand.

Also according to Tien, in order to help ease pressure on parents and students, the city’s education department plans to apply online enrolment for nursery, primary and secondary schools from the 2016 academic year.

Instead of coming directly to schools, parents and students access schools’ official websites to make registrations online. Later, they bring original documents to schools for reference. 

The software that serves the online enrolment for nursery, primary and secondary schools is being created.

The Ministry of Education and Training has released a decision on prohibiting secondary schools from organizing entrance exams to select students. 

The new regulation has made it difficult for prestigious schools to select students, because the number of candidates is much higher than the number of students enrolled.

The Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, Luong The Vinh, Marie Curie and Cau Giay, for example, plan to admit 200-300 students on average, but there are thousands of applications.

Tien Phong