VietNamNet Bridge – Although the new academic year doesn’t begin until September, most of the schools in HCM City have stopped enrolling students.

PCV, a parent in Go Vap District, said he came to the Hoang Yen Nursery School to enroll his 3-year old child in the school on July 1, or two months before the new academic year, but he was told that the classes there became too overloaded to receive more children.

“I could finally obtain a seat at the school for my son after I met the headmaster of the school face to face and persuaded her to accept my son,” he said.

H.Nga, a parent in district 3, said she contacted the Nursery School No 1 to ask about the enrolment plan for the new academic year in late June, but she was told that all the classes had filled up.

According to Vo Ngoc Thu, head of the District 5’s education sub-department, all the schools in the locality were overloaded this year.

“There are 300 more students entering the first grade this year, while the number of sixth graders has increased by 350,” she said.

A report of the HCM City Education and Training Department showed that there are 11,000 first graders and 12,000 sixth graders more than in the previous year. The number of newly built schools hasn’t helped to fill all the wanted seats.

The students entering the first and sixth grades this year are those who were born in 2008 and 2003, or the Year of Golden Rat and the Year of Golden Goat, respectively, according to the Lunar Calendar.

Vietnamese parents wanted to have children in those years as they were seen as auspicious.

Not only primary and secondary schools, but nursery schools, especially in the areas with many migrant workers, are overloaded. Hundreds of parents reportedly queued up at night in front of the Hiep Binh Chanh Nursery School to buy registration forms for their children.

According to Chung Bich Phuong, deputy head of the Tan Phu District’s education sub-department, 30,000 children in the district need to go to nursery schools, while the local state-owned schools can accommodate 6,000 children, or 40 percent.

One new nursery school, Vang Anh, has opened to receive students, but it is just large enough to receive 305 students.

Meanwhile, an official of district 7 authorities, said the schools in the locality are always overloaded because of the increasingly high number of migrant workers. Tran Quoc Toan Primary School has reportedly received 160 applications for studying at the school, though it is large enough for 140 children only.

The headmaster of a school in the district said the overly high number of students has forced him to break the regulations. Primary schools are told not to organize classes with more than 35 students, but in fact, there are classes with 45 students.

Kim Chi