1,001 reasons to send your child to extra classes

If I don't study more, I won't feel secure.

Ms. Huong registered her daughter for extra classes in grade 1 for a simple reason - she could not leave work at 4 p.m. to pick her up. "I do not expect my child to learn anything new in extra classes, but at least she can draw, color, write dictation... I also have a safe and useful place to leave my child while waiting for me to get off work. It is better than letting my child sit around holding the phone or watching TV all day, and I cannot complete my work for the day," said this parent.

Waiting to pick up my child from school at the tutoring center on Trieu Quang Phuc Street, District 5 (HCMC)

Sending their children to extra classes to have a place to leave them after school is one of the common reasons for parents in big cities today, especially those families who do not live with grandparents or other relatives. Many other parents choose to register their children to attend all extra classes, from Vietnamese, math, English..., even though their children are only in elementary school. A parent with a child in elementary school, residing in Nha Be District

(HCMC), said: "My child only studies 3 afternoons a week, much less than other families. Many families have children study 5 days a week, and on Saturday and Sunday mornings they also go to English, piano, drawing, and swimming classes. Seeing other people's children studying while my child just stays home and plays makes me feel uneasy."

Notably, contrary to people's thinking that only public school students take extra classes, students at non-public schools, including international schools, still take extra classes. A parent whose child attends an international school in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City, said that every month he has to spend tens of millions of VND for his child to learn Vietnamese to speak and write fluently in his mother tongue, learn mental math, learn Japanese, Spanish, etc.

Is the primary school curriculum heavy?

A teacher who has been in the education sector for more than 10 years, is working as a homeroom teacher at a primary school in Ho Chi Minh City and does not participate in extra classes, pointed out the reasons why parents let their primary school children "run" to take extra classes. In addition to not having a place to send their children after school hours, it is also the disease of achievement. Many families do not accept their children getting a 7 in this subject, an 8 in that subject, but must be perfect, every subject must have a 10. Parents put pressure on themselves when they look at each other, seeing that everyone is taking extra classes, and their children are "noticeable" if they do not study. Another reason comes from the disease of achievement from the teachers themselves. At the end of the school year, homeroom teachers whose students have to retake the test will have their competition points reduced, affecting their classification. Some people will be "impatient" so they have a way to urge parents to let their children take extra classes...

Students were picked up by their parents at noon on August 25, at a tutoring center in District 8, Ho Chi Minh City.

"The 2018 General Education Program is within the students' ability to absorb. As long as they study hard in class, complete learning tasks, review and evaluate students' assessments, it is not difficult to be rated "passed", this teacher frankly said.

Le Hoang, a former student of Phu Nhuan High School, one of the two valedictorians of the D01 group in Ho Chi Minh City with 27.85 points; the runner-up of the D07 group in Ho Chi Minh City with 29.1 points; with a math score of 9.8 - the highest math score nationwide in the 2024 high school graduation exam, said that in addition to taking extra English classes at the center, he studied at home throughout his elementary and middle school years, and only in grade 10 did he take extra classes to focus on preparing for university. "The friends around me took extra classes very hard. But in my opinion, during elementary and middle school years, it was completely possible to learn by yourself through textbooks, review materials, and ask teachers and friends," said the valedictorian of the D01 group in Ho Chi Minh City.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/1001-ly-do-de-cho-con-di-hoc-them-185240825233035216.htm