H.M.T in Hanoi told VietNamNet that just one month after the new academic year, she was given a leaflet with information about an international Math and English Olympiad. She was advised by teachers to register her daughter for the competition.

“I was surprised about the advice of the teacher. How can a small girl, who just began going to school and even was not proficient in Vietnamese, attend an ‘international competition’?” she said.

“However, because of curiosity, I still accessed the website of the competition. The first thing I saw on the website was a pop-up invitation to attend a class to prepare for the competition with tuition of VND360,000,” she said.

In late November 2023, T was given another notice, inviting students to attend a competition called ‘Trang nguyen Tieng Viet’ in Vietnamese language skills.

“At first, I ignored the competition because I thought it would be unbearable to my daughter who knew only some Vietnamese letters. However, the teachers reminded her of the competition three times and said the achievements gained at the competition will be considered by the school when assessing students’ ability, so I had to register my daughter for the competition,” she recalled.

Her elder son, a seventh grader, receives such notices regularly. In early September last year, his monitor teacher sent her link to Bebras Computational Thinking Challenge, and in mid-October, the teacher sent a link to American Mathematics Competitions (AMC).

“I receive notices about competitions so often that I feel confused. I cannot remember the names of the competitions, the time they are held. Honestly speaking, I don’t know why my children need to attend the competitions,” she said.

L.T.M, 40, an office worker in Hanoi, said her 3-year-old son last November told his mother that he needed VND300,000 to attend an international mathematics competition.  When she asked the teacher about the competition, the teacher said her son was good at mathematics, so he should attend the competition.

“My husband and I were excited when hearing that our son was good at math. However, after reading information about the rules of the competition, we were embarrassed,” she said.

“The competition to seek international mathematics talents was organized by a joint stock company, and the number of prizes depended on the number of attendees. About 70 percent of students will get prizes after the first round and 80 percent after the second round,” she explained.

“The second round of the competition is organized abroad and parents have to pay for tickets abroad and meals overseas. A parent told me that the cost would be tens of millions of dong. Therefore, we decided to say ‘no’ to the competition,” she said.

Having two children in grammar school, Hoang Minh, 39, an IT engineer in Hanoi, said he is aware of the existence of such competitions.

There are some good and useful competitions organized by the Ministry of Education and Training and some prestigious organizations. These competitions are open to everyone, free of charge.

The majority of other competitions are organized by companies in the field of education. As for this kind of competition, the further students can go, the more money the parents have to pay.

“The common characteristic of the competitions is that the number of prize winners is always very high,” he said.

Sone parents register their children for all of the competitions because they want to accumulate prizes. The students with many high prizes at competitions and busy extracurricular activities will have advantages when enrolling in overseas schools.

“I know that some students can win tens of medals before they finish primary school. I also see that many students are not really good at math and English, but still can win numerous prizes,” Minh said.

In theory, the competitions are optional. But in practice, they are compulsory for many schools.

A teacher at a primary school in Hanoi said she has had to prepare her students for at least two competitions a year.

“Our school was asked by the district’s education and training sub-department to attend the competitions and the school’s board of management asked teacher to help students win prizes,” she explained.

Ngan Anh