Teach 2 sessions/day free of charge: Wait early for instructions

Primary school students in Yen Bai are guaranteed to study 2 sessions/day, even in disadvantaged areas - Photo: VINH HA

Teaching 2 sessions/day ensures no fees and reduces pressure on students, enhancing teaching about culture and arts to ensure comprehensive development of students. Implementation time is from the 2025-2026 school year.

Over 20 locations teach 5 days/week

According to Tuoi Tre reporters, in addition to ensuring that primary school students study 2 sessions/day, more than 20 localities are currently piloting teaching 5 days/week for secondary school students (10 sessions/week). Students will have Saturday and Sunday off (previously they only had Sunday off).

Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Vinh Phuc, Bac Giang , Yen Bai, Ninh Binh, Ha Tinh provinces... will implement from the second semester of the 2024-2025 school year. Secondary school students will study 2 sessions/day with 5 days/week, in which each day has no more than seven teaching periods.

Ninh Binh is a locality that strongly implements this model with 51 secondary schools and 18 high schools (about 40% of high schools). Most of the above provinces arrange the second session program for students to self-study and practice skills througheducational activities, scientific research, practice, and real-life experiences.

Some localities arrange the official school timetable to be extended to the second session in cases where 100% of students study 2 sessions/day.

In some mountainous areas in the North, the 5-day-a-week teaching model has become popular as localities have eliminated odd-numbered schools and sent students to boarding and semi-boarding schools. State policies for boarding and semi-boarding students are the basis for localities to overcome difficulties.

Some localities apply the policy of sending students to the main school to teach 5 days/week for students from grades 3-12, but some localities also send students from grades 1 and 2 to the main school. The quality of education when sending students to the main school to study 5 days/week is significantly improved.

In mountainous provinces, despite difficult socio-economic conditions, there are support policies for boarding and semi-boarding schools and students. The typical difficulties in these areas are mainly the eating, resting and living conditions of boarding students.

Hanoi: many districts over 50% study 2 sessions in secondary school

In Hanoi, nearly 100% of primary school students study two sessions a day, but at secondary school level, this rate is low and varies between districts. In Ba Dinh district, only 55% of students in 13 secondary schools study two sessions a day.

This rate in Hai Ba Trung district is about 50% of students. Cau Giay district only organizes 2 sessions/day for students in grades 6 and 7 of 7 middle schools out of 11 schools...

According to the heads of the Department of Education and Training of Hanoi's inner-city districts, in the current context, there are three most fundamental difficulties for secondary schools when implementing two-session teaching per day.

Firstly, there is a lack of classrooms, secondly, there is a lack of teachers for some subjects to meet the required ratio of teaching 2 sessions/day. Thirdly, there is no specific guidance on the teaching program for the 2nd session in the context of implementing the 2018 general education program.

Another difficulty is finance. Currently, the tuition fee for supporting the second session for secondary school students in Hanoi is 235,000 VND/student/month according to the resolution of the City People's Council regulating services for educational and training activities.

When implementing 2 sessions/day of free teaching, meaning there will be no more revenue, there needs to be a solution to offset costs to remove difficulties for schools.

A STEM lesson of students at Nguyen Van To Secondary School, District 10, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: NHU HUNG

Waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Education and Training

Representatives of some Departments of Education and Training shared with Tuoi Tre that they hope the Ministry of Education and Training will soon have instructions on implementing 2-session teaching per day at secondary school level.

From there, the departments have the basis to advise the provincial leaders to develop an implementation roadmap along with ensuring conditions such as building additional schools, classrooms, teaching staff and especially budget sources to support this.

Need specific roadmap and solutions

The principal of a secondary school in Hai Ba Trung district (Hanoi) shared that the school has currently implemented Circular 29 on the management of extra teaching and learning. In which, it is stipulated that free extra teaching in schools is only allowed for three subjects (enriching excellent students, tutoring students who have not met the requirements, and reviewing for final year students).

From February 2025 to now, the school has had to deploy teachers to teach nearly 350 extra lessons without charging students.

"According to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the cost of supporting teachers to teach extra classes for the three above subjects can be taken from the budget or other legal sources of revenue. But in reality, the budget is tight, and there are no specific instructions for other sources of revenue, so schools are worried about doing something wrong and do not implement it.

Therefore, the actual cost of support for teachers in this case at my school is still 0 VND. Now, continuing to implement teaching 2 sessions/day for free, although it is a very humane policy, schools really need to understand the implementation roadmap and specific solutions regarding financial support sources, otherwise it will be very difficult to implement."

Ho Chi Minh City: 100% of primary schools teach 2 sessions/day

A gifted sports class with basketball for students of Tran Quoc Toan 1 Secondary School, Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City. - Photo: NHU HUNG

According to the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, currently 100% of primary schools in the city organize 2 sessions/day. Of which, districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, Phu Nhuan and Can Gio and Nha Be districts have organized 2 sessions/day from Monday to Friday for 100% of students.

In the remaining localities, due to difficulties in facilities, some schools organize flexibly. That means students will study both morning and afternoon on two or three days from Monday to Friday.

In addition, students will go to school on Saturdays to ensure a 2-session/day program.

Contribute to improving the quality of education

At the secondary level, the proportion of students who study two sessions per day is lower than that of primary school students. Not to mention that there are still some districts with many secondary schools with higher student numbers than the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training; conditions for playgrounds, practice grounds, libraries, etc. are limited.

Especially in areas with annual population growth such as District 12, Go Vap, Tan Binh, Tan Phu, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh District, Hoc Mon...

According to Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, teaching two sessions a day aims to achieve the goal of comprehensive education, contributing to improving the quality of education; meeting the needs of families and society in managing and educating students; enhancing life skills education; implementing teaching innovation...

The 2-session/day program includes teaching and educational activities.

Teaching activities will closely follow and improve the main curriculum, organize subjects according to the abilities and talents of each group of subjects to promote students' abilities; enhance the content of developing foreign language and computer skills for students.

The duration of teaching activities should not exceed half of the total duration of the 2nd session according to the 2 sessions/day plan so that the school has time to organize educational activities for students.

Educational activities are the organization and implementation of activities such as experiences, scientific research, activities oriented towards STEM education, career education; education of life values, social practice skills, etc.

Mr. Quoc said that for primary schools, the principal will proactively develop the school program, arrange a flexible and appropriate timetable, and ensure a reasonable ratio between teaching content and educational activities. The school program must be reported to the competent authority before implementation.

After the decision to allow teaching 2 sessions/day, high schools will proactively develop detailed teaching plans for subjects based on ensuring program content, knowledge and skill standards, and not causing "overload" for students.

Must rearrange

However, Mr. NHS, a math teacher and also a parent with a child studying at secondary school, commented: "Reading the directive documents of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, I understand that teaching 2 sessions/day means that the school has 1 more session to teach each group of students.

To do that, the second session must be rearranged so that groups of students of the same level can study together.

According to this teacher, in reality, very few schools do exactly as this goal. Most schools still keep the same class from session 1 to teach session 2. And teachers implicitly understand that this is a legal way of increasing the number of hours and teaching extra classes.

"Increasing the number of hours in general overloads students without any results. For example, my child is in 9th grade this year. After the main curriculum, he wants to take extra math classes to take the entrance exam for the 10th grade math major. But at school on Monday, my child studies with friends who do not want to take the entrance exam for the 10th grade math major, so the math teacher only gives basic lessons.

I have to ask for my child to study one session a day. The other session I let him go to extra classes to take the 10th grade entrance exam" - Mr. S. concluded.

Similarly, Ms. Duong Hong Suong, a parent with two children studying at primary and secondary schools in Ho Chi Minh City, shared: "My family cannot pick up our children at noon, and there is no one at home to take care of them in the afternoon. Therefore, my purpose of applying for my children to study 2 sessions/day is so that they can go to a boarding class, and eat and sleep at school at noon.

I don't know how the school organizes teaching, but my older child still has to go to extra classes in the evening."

Meanwhile, many principals in Ho Chi Minh City are concerned about not collecting fees for the second session: "The Department of Education and Training needs to have specific instructions on teaching two sessions per day in the new school year. Currently, we are allowed to collect tuition fees for the second session, and tuition fees for subjects in the school program such as life skills, learning English with native teachers, learning computer science according to international standards...

If these fees are not collected in the new school year, how will the school operate? Will the compensation budget be enough to cover the expenses?

* Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc (Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training):

Need appropriate mechanism and treatment

Teaching 2 sessions/day contributes to improving the quality of education, developing students' qualities and abilities based on a diverse educational environment. The 2-session/day program at school helps students have a healthy environment to develop.

However, the physical facilities at schools in Ho Chi Minh City are still difficult and uneven. Many places still lack classrooms and teachers, especially teachers of music, fine arts, physical education, foreign languages, and information technology.

The State needs to have appropriate mechanisms and policies for teachers who teach two sessions per day to implement the 2018 general education program, especially teachers of music, fine arts, physical education, foreign languages, and information technology.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/day-2-buoi-ngay-khong-thu-phi-cho-som-co-huong-dan-20250507230007763.htm