Editor's note:

Extra classes are becoming an invisible and unavoidable pressure for many families. VietNamNet opens the forum Extra Class Pressure with the hope of recording and discussing this story in depth with readers.

We look forward to receiving feedback from parents, teachers, students andeducational administrators about their practical experiences, lessons learned and proposed new solutions to this issue of great concern to society.

The article below is the perspective of a Literature teacher in Nghe An .

Extra teaching and learning is one of the hot issues in education in our country today. First of all, it is necessary to understand that extra teaching and learning is an educational activity outside of regular school hours, usually aimed at helping students consolidate knowledge, improve skills or directly prepare for exams. This activity can be organized at school, at home or at an educational center.

In essence, extra tutoring activities originate from the legitimate needs of parents and students and can have a positive impact on the quality of teaching.

In fact, a class size in a public school is usually 40-50 students, with different learning goals and abilities. Extracurricular learning with smaller class sizes, even 1:1 tutoring, will meet the needs of learning according to a path that suits individual abilities and aims at each student's specific goals.

On the other hand, parents’ expectations and the pressure of grades and exams are also factors that increase the pressure on students to take extra classes. If they do not take extra classes, students and parents are afraid of getting low scores, not being able to get into their dream school, and not having opportunities in the future. Teachers are also under a lot of pressure from evaluating and classifying teachers based on exam results.

As a result, many students' schedules are too tight, leaving no time for relaxation, socializing, making friends, experiencing life, exercising , or taking care of their health. In particular, the opportunity for students to feel the joy of learning and improve their self-study skills is eliminated.

Too much time spent studying and high pressure from homework can overload students, gradually causing them to lose motivation to study, even leading to mental health problems. The cost of extra classes for children is also a concern for many middle- and low-income families.

From the teachers’ side, it is undeniable that tutoring helps teachers increase their income, and for some, it is even higher than their main salary. However, that does not mean that tutoring only has positive effects for teachers.

Teachers have to spend a lot of time and effort to prepare lessons, teach, mark and support students throughout the learning process. Tutoring sessions often take place in the evenings or on weekends, so teachers do not have much time for themselves and their families.

At first glance, some people may think that tutoring can help teachers improve their professional skills. In fact, this is not the case. Most tutoring sessions focus on exam preparation, aiming to improve scores rather than developing students’ overall qualities and abilities. Therefore, teachers’ overall professional skills do not have much opportunity to develop when tutoring.

When their teaching schedules are full, teachers no longer have time to develop themselves, learn and deepen their knowledge, especially to improve their ability to use new teaching methods to meet the requirements of the new educational program. This creates a significant barrier in the current educational reform process.

The 2018 program is expected to create a breakthrough in ending the rampant situation of extra tutoring because this program aims to develop qualities and abilities rather than focusing on providing knowledge. After 6 years of implementation, it is undeniable that the 2018 program has contributed to positive changes in the country's education system. However, in order to avoid getting bogged down in the extra tutoring race, students, parents and teachers need to proactively change.

From the parents' side, it is necessary to work with children to set appropriate goals and instead of having too high expectations, accompany and encourage them. Children's learning outcomes do not depend on where they go to school or how much time they spend studying with teachers, but on their ability to acquire and apply knowledge and improve skills. Therefore, parents should not let their children study too much but should proactively choose subjects and the number of study sessions that are suitable for their children. In addition to the time their children go to class, parents need to create a learning environment at home and give their children the opportunity to study on their own.

For teachers, the most difficult thing is to innovate teaching methods to meet the requirements of the new general education program. The highest goal of teaching is to teach how to learn. However, when all current teachers are products of the old education program, and training courses for teachers are still heavily theoretical, innovation in teaching methods is still not something that can be done overnight.

For students, they need to be proactive and positive in the learning process. The era of information technology explosion creates conditions for students to explore and discover a huge, unlimited treasure trove of knowledge. Learning opportunities in modern times are endless, if they have a self-study method, they will be confident in learning and renewing themselves throughout their lives.

Reader Thanh Giang (High School Teacher in Nghe An)

The content of the article represents the author's own perspective and views. Readers with similar opinions or stories can send them to email: [email protected]. Articles published on VietNamNet will receive royalties according to the editorial board's regulations. Sincerely thank you!
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