The 2026 Year of the Horse Lunar New Year holiday for students nationwide is relatively long, with the common duration ranging from 11 to 14 days, depending on the locality.

Some provinces, such as An Giang, Lam Dong, and Quang Ninh, have granted students up to 14 days off. In some areas, the actual holiday time is even longer due to overlap with weekends.

Meanwhile, Hanoi currently has the shortest holiday schedule, with only 5 days officially planned (totaling 9 days when including the adjacent weekends).

This year’s nearly two-week Tet holiday may seem long enough for children to “recharge,” but it has left many parents uneasy as exams draw near.

Tran Thi Kim Ngan, a teacher at Kim Lien High School in Hanoi, said that during major holidays such as Tet, she usually does not assign extra homework to students.

“I have always hoped that students could have a Tet holiday with ‘no homework,’ so they can devote 100 percent of their time and attention to ‘learning’ more about the traditional cultural knowledge and values of the nation during Tet,” Ngan said.

According to Ngan, there is no need to worry excessively that students will “lose” knowledge if they are not given Tet homework.

“When students study seriously, the daily homework assignments already help convert short-term memory into long-term memory. For knowledge that has entered long-term memory, students only need a brief reminder to recall it fully,” she explained.

Therefore, Ngan said assigning homework during Tet is unnecessary and may create avoidable stress and pressure for students.

Ho Tuan Anh, principal of Quynh Phuong Secondary School in Hoang Mai town, Nghe An province, said Tet is a deeply meaningful holiday for students. “Normally, the Lunar New Year break comes right after the end of the first semester, so it is also a chance for students to truly unwind after months of study. Tet is also an opportunity for them to reconnect with family, clans, ancestors, hometowns and the community. Moreover, it is a time for students to learn about Vietnamese customs and traditions. Ultimately, that is also education and learning,” he said.

According to him, many parents and teachers worry that a long break will cause students to play too much and interrupt their learning, leading them to assign heavy homework. This can create pressure and anxiety, stripping away the meaning of the holiday.

Tuan Anh argued that it would be unfair if teachers want to rest fully during Tet while forcing students to worry about completing assigned tasks.

“Perhaps we should only offer suggestions for them to explore the customs and traditions of their hometown and lineage, and to observe the traditional Tet atmosphere with nuance instead of just immersing themselves in books,” Tuan Anh suggested.

Tet is not an exam period, but a classroom of life

Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, Principal of Nguyen Sieu Secondary and High School (Hanoi), also believes that Tet is not an exam period but can be a classroom of life.

“Tet should not become a 'miniature semester' with dense academic assignments. On the contrary, it is a precious time for students to truly rest, return to their families and roots, and engage with the nation's traditional cultural rhythm, the things that no textbook can fully replace,” Thuy said.

Instead of academic homework, according to Thuy, schools should encourage students to carry out personal experiential projects such as wrapping chung cakes with grandparents, going to the Tet market, cleaning ancestral altars, visiting relatives, participating in local festivals, or recording family Tet stories.

“Every small activity is a big lesson in history, culture, ethics, gratitude, and the connection between generations. In the digital era and global integration, when knowledge can be accessed anytime and anywhere, the most important thing is not just knowing a lot, but understanding who you are. Tet is the most natural space for students to nurture their identity and form a cultural character,” Thuy said.

According to the Principal of Nguyen Sieu School, modern education does not only take place in the classroom but also in life. And Tet, after all, is a "classroom", where every child learns how to be a person, a child, and a Vietnamese citizen in a constantly moving world.

Thanh Hung