My child finished school at 3:30 pm, and I was restless.

Ms. Tra's child is studying in grade 7 in Cau Giay, Hanoi . Although the new school year has officially started for 1 week and students have been back to school for more than 2 weeks, Ms. Tra's child's school does not have an official timetable.

According to Ms. Tra, her child has 4 classes in the morning, 2 classes in the afternoon, and no school on Saturdays. The school has not organized any extracurricular clubs, no English classes with foreigners, no STEM classes like last school year. With this schedule, her child has to leave at 3:30 pm every day.

"Every time I book a car to pick up my child, I don't dare leave my phone screen to monitor the app to see where the driver is taking my child," Ms. Tra expressed her anxiety and worry about not being able to pick up her child in person.

Ms. Pham Thi Chi, whose child studies at another middle school in the area, also reported the same thing.

“My house is 4km from the school, not convenient for bus routes. My child is only in 6th grade and cannot ride a bike yet. Recently, my husband and I had to take turns coming home early to pick up our child. The whole family's daily routine and work schedule were disrupted,” Chi shared.

According to a survey by Dan Tri reporters in Cau Giay and Tu Liem wards, primary schools basically maintain the same timetable as the 2024-2025 school year. Students leave school from 4:00 p.m. to 4:20 p.m. depending on the grade level to ensure smooth traffic.

However, secondary schools only organize 6 periods/day, without any linked classes on English, STEM, life skills, English math, etc.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Van, a teacher at a secondary school in Hanoi, analyzed the obstacles that schools are facing when implementing 2-session learning per day:

From the 2025-2026 school year, middle and high schools with adequate facilities must implement 2 sessions/day. In which, session 1 is for regular classes, session 2 is for organizing activities to consolidate and comprehensively develop arts, sports , life skills, digital skills, etc. Also from this school year, students will be exempted from tuition fees.

However, the two policies are different. Students are exempt from tuition fees for compulsory education . However, many parents are understanding that education outside the compulsory curriculum is also free.

That leads to requests from parents such as: Schools must organize additional classes to extend the school day to 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. Schools must organize review and reinforcement for students at the end of the session instead of having to register for skill classes, moral, intellectual, physical and aesthetic training...

"This request is legitimate, provided that the school has the financial resources to implement it. This financial source can come from the budget, from social mobilization, or from parent contributions.

As for review and reinforcement lessons for students, schools do not dare to do them due to regulations on extra teaching and learning," said Ms. Van.

Ms. Van emphasized that Circular 29 of the Ministry of Education and Training clearly stipulates that secondary school students are only allowed to take extra classes in 3 cases: tutoring for students who have not achieved their grades, nurturing excellent students, and reviewing for final exams.

Thus, most students in grades 6, 7, and 8 will not be allowed to take extra classes in any form. Schools are also not allowed to collect extra tuition in any form.

“If the school wants to organize more review and reinforcement sessions for students to increase the number of lessons, it cannot collect money from parents. This means that teachers will not be paid even if they work overtime or teach beyond the quota. This is certainly not a long-term solution,” Ms. Van said.

In elementary school, Ms. Nguyen Huong Giang, a teacher in Cau Giay, said: At the earliest, schools will have a fixed timetable by next week.

“This weekend is the parent-teacher conference schedule, homeroom teachers need to ask for consensus before officially implementing the joint lessons. Without these lessons, primary school students will have to go home early, because the Ministry only allows a maximum of 7 lessons per day.

In general, primary schools have not had any disruptions because they have been implementing two sessions a day for many years. However, for secondary schools that are organizing two sessions for the first time, the implementation will be more difficult,” Ms. Giang shared.

Teachers' working hours according to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training

The working time of general education teachers is implemented according to Circular 05 of the Ministry of Education and Training, which clearly states: "The working time of teachers is implemented according to the school year and is converted into teaching hours, including the number of teaching hours in a school year and the average number of teaching hours in a week according to the teaching hour norm".

Specifically, the average teaching hours per week for primary school teachers is 23, for secondary school teachers is 19 and for high school teachers is 17. Thus, if the school implements 5 sessions/week, primary school teachers will teach 4.6 hours/day, secondary school teachers will teach 3.8 hours/day, and high school teachers will teach 3.4 hours/day.

In addition, the Ministry stipulates a reduction in teaching hours for teachers who concurrently hold other positions such as homeroom teacher, head of professional group, Party and Youth Union work, educational affairs, student counseling, etc.

(*) Parents and teachers' names have been changed

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/con-tan-hoc-tu-15h30-me-thap-thom-dung-ngoi-khong-yen-20250912162707731.htm