Teaching 2 sessions/day: The goal is not far away if the determination is big enough

Education & Training - Facilities are always the top concern of schools before each new school year, especially in disadvantaged areas.

Towards implementing 2-session teaching/day at secondary and high school levels, schools and localities simultaneously review the conditions of classrooms, functions, teaching staff for each subject and educational activities... to ensure effective implementation in the 2025-2026 school year in places that meet the requirements.

“Race” for more classrooms

The construction of some items of Nguyen Binh Khiem Ethnic Boarding Secondary School (Tra Doc, Da Nang City) is in the final stage to be put into use before the new school year. The project includes a block of classrooms and a boarding house, with a budget of about 10 billion VND, from the National Target Program capital in 2024.

Mr. Vu Hoang Tam - Principal, shared: “The school has 716 students, 19 classes with 11 classrooms. The classroom block is under construction, when put into use, there will be 8 new classrooms, the dormitory area will have 26 additional rooms, replacing the degraded block of rooms. Basically, the school will have enough rooms to teach 2 sessions/day according to the policy of the Ministry of Education and Training ”.

Hung Vuong Secondary School (Hoa Son, Dak Lak) is also rushing to complete facilities and arrange staff for 10 classes with about 370 students, of which nearly 40% are children of ethnic minorities, many of whom are from poor or near-poor households, and whose families often work far away on the fields. This is a group of students at risk of not being able to attend the full 2-session/day program, so maintaining class size is still a "difficult problem" that requires the cooperation of the school, family and society.

“The whole school has 10 classes with 10 classrooms and 3 subject rooms, basically meeting the requirements of teaching 2 sessions/day. Regarding equipment, we take advantage of available tools and experiments, combining the creativity of teachers to develop a plan to use minimal equipment, ensuring enough practice and simulation experiments according to the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program,” said Mr. Tran Ngoc Thinh, Principal.

At Tran Quang Khai High School (Cu M'gar, Dak Lak), the principal and 45 staff and teachers urgently prepared for 22 classes with nearly 900 students, of which about 40% are ethnic minority students. "The school has completed the repair of 22 main classrooms, 6 subject rooms; reviewed the curriculum and teaching plan with an expected 10 sessions/week.

Afternoons will be devoted to educational activities and gifted subjects. Facilities and teaching equipment will at least meet the requirements for the new school year,” Principal Le Chi Khai informed, while sharing two long-standing problems that have not been resolved: maintaining attendance rates and a lack of art teachers.

To maintain the number of students, Tran Quang Khai High School assigns experienced teachers to each class. For Music and Fine Arts, it temporarily contracts elementary school teachers with university degrees to teach by class. But in the long term, Mr. Khai hopes the department will add staff so that the school can be more proactive in teaching.

Le Hong Phong Secondary School (Hai Chau, Da Nang City) plans to implement a teaching and learning plan of 8 sessions/week in the 2025-2026 school year. With 24 classes and 12 classrooms, according to Principal Dang Ngoc Lam, there are not enough rooms to organize 10 sessions/week.

“In the immediate future, the school will choose to organize 8 sessions/week, in which some subjects such as Physical Education, Local Education and subjects using subject classrooms such as Information Technology, Music, Natural Sciences will be transferred to the timetable in the second session. In addition, in the second session, there will be other educational activities such as STEM clubs, cultural subjects and gifted subjects, organized based on students' registration wishes,” Mr. Lam said.

Students of Nguyen Hue Secondary School (Da Nang) with STEM Festival activities. Photo: PV

The difficulty of favorable areas

Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Ha - Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Hoa Xuan Ward (Da Nang City) said that with 3 secondary schools in the area, the immediate priority is to have enough classrooms for the plan of teaching and learning 1 session/day.

For example, Nguyen Thien Thuat Secondary School has 72 classes but only 22 classrooms this school year. The school was forced to use the playground to make 4 prefabricated classrooms, and the subject classrooms were temporarily requisitioned to be classrooms. The use of temporary classrooms is expected to last until the end of the first semester of the 2025-2026 school year when the construction of a block of 9 classrooms at the school's second campus is put into use.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Hong Anh Secondary School has a classroom block that has been in use for more than 20 years and is starting to deteriorate. In 2024, the Da Nang City People's Committee approved and issued Decision No. 738 on the policy of building new classrooms and subjects, but it has not been implemented yet.

“In order to organize 2 sessions/day of teaching in secondary schools in Hoa Xuan ward, it is necessary to double the number of classrooms compared to the existing classrooms. In addition, it is necessary to calculate the rate of mechanical population growth because this is a new urban area, many young families have moved to live, so the number of primary and secondary school age students increases rapidly every year. For example, in the 2025-2026 school year, Nguyen Thien Thuat Secondary School will increase 10 classes compared to the previous year,” Ms. Ha proposed.

At Ong Ich Khiem High School (Hoa Vang, Da Nang City), the story of degraded facilities is becoming a concern for both teachers and students. Although the school has enough teachers, it has not been able to implement the plan of teaching 2 sessions/day in the 2025-2026 school year.

Mr. Thai Quang Binh - Principal of Ong Ich Khiem High School shared: “The school currently has 23 classrooms, 44 classes with more than 600 students. However, 9 classrooms are seriously degraded. When the rainy season comes, the ceiling leaks, the walls are soaked, directly affecting the students' learning. With such conditions, we cannot implement teaching 2 sessions/day, although this is an urgent need to improve the quality of education”.

Ong Ich Khiem High School has sent a petition to the Department of Education and Training to invest in repairing the corrugated iron roof before the rainy season and to invest in building new classrooms. According to Mr. Binh, this is not only a temporary solution, but also a strategic step for Ong Ich Khiem High School to catch up with the general development trend of the education sector.

Teachers at Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Da Nang) prepare to welcome students back to school. Photo: Hoang Vinh Truong

Think long term

Lien Chieu Ward (Da Nang City) currently has 2 secondary schools, Nguyen Luong Bang and Huynh Ba Phat. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Lich - Vice Chairman of the Ward People's Committee, said: "Although the plan to teach and study one session per day is still being implemented, secondary schools in the area still lack classrooms.

Students residing in the ward still have to "study" at 3 secondary schools in neighboring wards such as Hai Van and Hoa Khanh. Because the time for enrolling 6th grade students in the 2025-2026 school year is still under the Department of Education and Training, so they can proactively apply the student regulation plan, but next school year, sending "students" must be recalculated.

In the roadmap for developing a plan to organize teaching and learning 2 sessions/day at the secondary school level, according to calculations, Hoa Khanh ward needs to have at least 60 more classrooms, equivalent to building about 2 new secondary schools. Currently, the People's Committee of Hoa Khanh ward is conducting a site survey to develop a project to build a new secondary school with a scale of about 25 - 30 classrooms, reducing the pressure on enrollment at the beginning of the school year for Nguyen Luong Bang Secondary School, which has run out of land to build more classrooms.

Nguyen Hue Secondary School (Hai Chau, Da Nang City) is making a proposal to use the headquarters of the old Thach Thang Ward People's Committee. The school currently does not have a multi-purpose gymnasium and has run out of land to build one. If the headquarters is handed over to build a multi-purpose gymnasium, this will be a premise for implementing the plan of teaching and learning 2 sessions/day with gifted sports subjects.

In the 2025-2026 school year, Nguyen Hue Secondary School has 51 classes but only 30 classrooms, 3 Natural Science subject rooms, 2 IT rooms, and 1 Music room; 21 classrooms are missing if teaching and learning are implemented 2 sessions/day. The school's land fund has been fully exploited, if new classrooms are built, the only way is to add more floors. But currently, the blocks of buildings used for classrooms are all built 3 or 4 floors.

The problem of teachers' offices when organizing teaching and learning 2 sessions/day is also taken into account by the Board of Directors of Nguyen Hue Secondary School.

“Currently, the school has a meeting room with an area of ​​about 80 square meters. There is also a large break room and a small break room for teachers. In the condition of organizing teaching and learning 1 session/day, with this number of rooms, it basically meets the requirements. However, when organizing 2 sessions/day, teachers stay at school to work 8 hours/day instead of just waiting for 45 minutes of free time as at present. Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of waiting rooms for teachers to meet the working needs,” Mr. Vo Thanh Phuoc - Principal of the school informed.

The Department of Education and Training of Da Nang has requested communes and wards to review and prepare conditions to organize 2 sessions/day of teaching and learning from the 2025-2026 school year at general education institutions in the area. For secondary and high schools, teaching and learning will only be organized 2 sessions/day when ensuring the ratio of 1 classroom/class.

When meeting the material facilities, the industry will have a plan to propose to relevant departments and branches to recruit staff such as the structure of teachers for each subject, educational activities, staff according to current regulations... and finance. - Mr. Pham Tan Ngoc Thuy (Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Da Nang)

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/day-hoc-2-buoingay-muc-tieu-khong-xa-neu-quyet-tam-du-lon-post746516.html