Putting tutoring into practice

Schools across the country have temporarily suspended extra classes, but are still waiting for guidance documents to "untangle" the problems that have arisen.

Circular 29/2024 of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) regulating extra teaching and learning officially took effect from February 14.

"Helpless" when having to pick up children early

According to the reporter, in Hanoi , many schools have stopped teaching extra classes. However, this has caused some difficulties for parents.

According to regulations, students will only study for the correct amount of time according to the program prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training. For example, primary schools teach 2 sessions/day, each day with no more than 7 periods, a minimum of 32 periods/week and a maximum of 35 periods/week. When cutting off paid enrichment classes, students will finish school at around 3:30 p.m. This makes parents worried because they have to manage and arrange time to pick up and drop off their children while they have not finished work. "If the school cannot arrange other activities, picking up the child early is very difficult for my family," said Mr. Nguyen Trung Dung, a parent whose child studies at Yen Hoa Primary School (Cau Giay District, Hanoi).

Extra teaching and learning activities after school hours are quite popular nowadays. Photo taken at a tutoring center in Ho Chi Minh City on the afternoon of February 14. Photo: TAN THANH

Similarly, in Ho Chi Minh City, while secondary school teachers (mainly high school teachers) quickly adapted to the new regulations, most primary school teachers were still confused. Having completely stopped tutoring before Tet, Ms. THV, a primary school teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, said she was waiting for the Department of Education and Training to have specific and detailed instructions. According to Ms. V., there are two options that teachers can implement: register a business to teach at home, or register at a licensed tutoring center.

Meanwhile, Ms. VA, a teacher at a high school in Binh Thanh district, said that she has been teaching at a center for a long time, so she is not too affected by the new regulations. However, for final year students who are studying at school and are still taking extra classes at the center, the center will not collect money. "There are not many of these students, the center is trying to arrange for them because there are only a few months left until the end of the school year," Ms. A. said.

Viet Duc High School (Cu Kuin District, Dak Lak Province) has organized extra classes to consolidate knowledge and improve the quality of mass education in all three grades for many years. When the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular 29/2024, the school stopped organizing extra classes and learning. Mr. Hoang Van Thai, Vice Principal of the school, informed that the school has reviewed and made a list of students who are slow to acquire knowledge based on the results of the first semester final exam and the high school graduation mock exam to develop a plan for free extra classes. Students will register at the end of February 2025 for each graduation exam subject. The school will assign experienced teachers to support students to the maximum in order to achieve the goal of 100% of students passing the graduation exam.

Teachers and schools are struggling.

The principal of a primary school in Cau Giay district (Hanoi) said that the school is considering ways to create the most favorable conditions for parents, such as arranging for teachers to look after students after school hours. However, this must have the consent of teachers and parents because it must be done on a voluntary basis.

According to the leader of a secondary school in Ba Dinh district (Hanoi), for many years now, the school has always arranged for teachers to tutor excellent students outside of school hours to help them develop better, while supplementing knowledge for weak students. With the new regulation, if extra-curricular tutoring is still organized, students cannot be charged while the school has no funding source to pay for this activity. "We really hope to have support from the state budget to be able to pay teachers for extra teaching outside of school hours. That is a very legitimate wish of the teachers" - the leader of this school expressed.

On the teachers' side, many people think that the movement to teach students for free is "not really satisfactory", especially for young teachers with low salaries, not enough to cover personal expenses.

Mr. Pham Dang Khoa - Head of the Department of Education and Training of District 3, Ho Chi Minh City - said that the unit is waiting for official instructions from the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City to deploy to educational institutions and teaching staff. However, before that, the unit had also deployed to schools, reminding teachers to comply with the regulations in Circular 29/2024.

Notably, in Dak Lak province, implementing Circular 29/2024, hundreds of people have registered their business households to organize extra classes, including many cases of teachers registering their names.

At the one-stop shop of the People's Committee of Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province, Ms. TTH admitted that she registered her business to help a teacher get extra classes. Mr. NNT also registered his business to help his younger brother and a friend organize extra classes in Tan Loi Ward, Buon Ma Thuot City.

According to statistics from the Planning and Finance Department of Buon Ma Thuot City, from December 2024 to now, the unit has granted licenses to more than 300 business registration certificates for other unclassified education sectors, specifically tutoring and tutoring. Currently, there are still nearly 100 sets of registration documents for business support in this sector that are still under processing.

How to manage and monitor?

In Da Nang City, many schools have implemented Circular 29/2024, but school principals complain that it is difficult to take primary responsibility.

Ms. Nguyen Tran Le Hong Trinh, Principal of Bui Thi Xuan Primary School (Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City), said that on the morning of February 14, the school had re-announced the implementation of Circular 29/2024 so that teachers could understand. The school asked teachers to commit and also conducted two field inspections at teachers' homes and found no violations. As for teachers' extra teaching activities at centers, the school has no right to inspect.

"The principal is mainly responsible for checking and supervising teachers during school hours, but supervising outside of school hours is too difficult. Even if extra teaching at home is discovered and the teacher says it is a free class, there is no basis for handling it" - Ms. Trinh stated the reality and proposed to assign more supervision responsibility to local authorities.

According to Mr. Do Dinh Dao, Principal of Nguyen Huu Tho High School (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City), there are some situations that still cause concern, such as students wanting to take extra classes with their regular teachers but are not allowed. Or the situation where a student comes to the center to register for extra classes and is accidentally placed in the same class as their regular teacher, is that a violation? "The principal cannot go to the teacher's extra class to see if there are any students that the teacher is teaching in the class" - Mr. Dao raised the difficulty.

Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, said that the department's view on cases of teachers violating regulations on extra teaching and learning is that there will be no exceptions, no leniency. According to Mr. Minh, Circular 29/2024 does not prohibit extra teaching and learning, but will manage this more strictly, restoring dignity to the education sector. "The need for extra learning to develop oneself of students is legitimate, so extra teaching is also a job. However, everything must be based on the spirit of voluntariness and must comply with regulations," Mr. Minh emphasized.

The leader of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training emphasized that Circular 29/2024 stipulating that teachers teaching at public schools are not allowed to organize or operate tutoring centers is in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Civil Servants. On the other hand, teachers must teach the entire content of the lesson in the main class, so that students can form and develop their self-study ability, avoiding taking extra classes for a test or an exam.

Can organize gifted education

Mr. Ho Tan Minh affirmed that the new regulation only does not allow primary school teachers to teach extra cultural subjects, but if they are capable, they can still teach gifted subjects such as musical instruments, singing, dancing, drawing, calligraphy... Primary schools can completely open sports and arts clubs... for students to participate in after school hours, creating conditions for parents to pick up their children late. "Primary school students only need to study cultural subjects for 2 sessions at school, that is enough, they need to practice skills or other talents for students to develop more comprehensively" - representative of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City stated his opinion.

Mr. Ho Tan Minh also affirmed that schools are still responsible for reviewing final year students for exams. Depending on each locality, there will be a roadmap and budget for organizing review sessions for final year students and training for weak students.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/dua-day-them-vao-khuon-kho-196250214214230475.htm