VietNamNet Bridge - More and more parents, especially urbanites, want to send their children to school at the age of five instead of six as stipulated by the law.

The debate was spurred by the account of a mother who wrote on an education forum that she was seeking an international school for her 5-year-old daughter, as state-owned schools would not allow her to begin school.

The mother wrote that her daughter can read and write well, and speak Vietnamese and English. She can also play chess and piano. All private teachers with whom her daughter learned advised the mother to enroll the girl in school sooner than planned.

The mother decided to send the girl to a private school. “My daughter has always been top in her class. She has many times asked me if she could skip the first grade and go on to the next form,” the mother wrote.

“I want my daughter to go to state-owned schools. But this seems to be impossible because under the current laws, students must not go to school before six,” she explained. 

Pham Diem Ngoc, also a parent in Hanoi, complained that she couldn't send her daughter to school before age.

Her daughter, aged five, went to preschool which uses the early education method. The girl can speak English, read books in Vietnamese and do four basic maths operations.

Ngoc tried different ways to enroll the girl in school. However, she cannot forge the birth certificate because information is saved in national data. In order to send the girl to school soon, she must get a certificate from the city education department to prove that the girl is physically and intellectually capable.

“As the procedures are too complicated, I decided to give up,” Ngoc said.

“The problem is that my daughter always feels bored at school. She said she has nothing to learn in the class because the teacher only talks about things she knows already,” she said. 

“Once children feel tired of lessons, they no longer want to go to school,” she added.

Le Huong Lan, an office worker, said she doesn’t agree with educators that it is necessary to send children to school at aged six. 

“There are students who have outstanding abilities which need to be promoted,” she said.

“I don't think it is a bad hong if my children finish school and go to work sooner than their friends of the same age,” she said. 

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