Struggling between club fees and picking up kids

TP - From the 2025-2026 school year, the policy of teaching 2 sessions/day will be widely implemented with the expectation of reducing pressure, helping students have more time to play and practice skills. However, in reality, after a week of implementation, many parents expressed concern when their children leave school at 3:00 p.m., while skill-enhancing activities, sports or clubs are often associated with fees, forcing them to make arrangements or find ways to pick up their children early.

Báo Tiền Phong•14/09/2025

After the opening ceremony, schools began to arrange their timetables according to the new school year's program. After a week of implementation, parents had many opinions about the two-session teaching/day causing many problems and inconveniences in picking up and dropping off their children.

Ms. Do Hong Loan in Ha Dong ward (Hanoi) shared that her child's schedule in grade 6 of a local middle school has only 6 periods per day. There are 4 periods in the morning, 2 periods in the afternoon and students leave school at 3:25 pm. In the afternoons, according to the schedule, students continue to study basic subjects including: Math, English, Literature, Natural Science , Literature Experience Activities... "At 3:25 pm, my child finishes school while my parents get off work at 5 am and the company is far away. Therefore, whether I want to or not, I have to register for affiliated clubs or study extra subjects near the school to wait for my parents to pick me up," Ms. Loan said.

On forums, many parents have commented on the regulation of no more than 7 teaching periods per day to reduce pressure on students, and the remaining time they can play and participate in extracurricular activities before going home. In fact, some schools still schedule 5 periods in the morning and 2 periods in the afternoon to implement joint programs or pay for childcare. Leaving school after 3 p.m. is too early, many parents cannot arrange their work to pick up and drop off their children, so they have to hire help, incurring additional costs.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training 's guidelines on teaching 2 sessions/day for primary schools, each day is arranged with no more than 7 lessons, each lesson is 35 minutes long. In the morning, the content of the General Education Program is taught; in the afternoon, activities are organized to consolidate students' learning content, STEM/STEAM education, reading culture, life skills education, sports, etc. At secondary school level, each day is no more than 7 lessons, each lesson is 45 minutes long. In the morning, students study according to the program and in the afternoon, review and tutor students who have not met the requirements; foster excellent students; organize review for students to take the entrance exam to grade 10; life skills, etc.

When intensive learning costs money

Ms. Phan Thi Xuan Thu, Principal of Phuc Dong Primary School ( Hanoi ), said that according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, students from grades 1 to 5 study 25-30 periods/week, however, the school is struggling to develop a teaching plan of 32 periods/week, so there will be 2 days with 7 periods; 3 days with 6 periods. With 6-period days, students will leave school at 3:20 p.m. and with 7-period days, students will leave school at 4:20 p.m., which is in accordance with the program. To arrange this, the school is taking advantage of the available teaching staff to increase from 2 physical education periods to 3 periods/week; increase from 1 period of Fine Arts and Music to 2 periods/week, and add 1 more Information Technology period for first graders to get acquainted with.

According to Ms. Thu, the effort to arrange some more classes for students to enhance music, fine arts, physical education... with teachers from the school itself is also to reduce the burden of association costs. However, the school is forced to "cleverly" save from expenses to pay for the teachers and not organize association programs such as STEM, English, Math and English into teaching because previously when the policy was proposed, only about 60% of parents agreed. The association program will only be implemented when there is nearly 100% consensus because the timetable inevitably has interleaved classes. Those who do not participate are in a difficult situation, so most parents arrange to pick up their children early.

With the current program, the policy of teaching 2 sessions/day is reasonable. According to Ms. Thu, it is necessary to increase communication so that parents understand that it is difficult to cram the program into one session and that children need time to play. A solution to overcome the difficulty in picking up and dropping off children for parents could be for schools to open libraries and implement a model of taking care of students at the end of the day at a low cost of 12,000 VND/hour. At that time, children who have not been picked up by their parents can continue to sit in class to finish their unfinished work during the day or play in a safe environment with teachers watching.

Ms. Tran Thi Huong, Principal of Van Bao Primary School, said that at the primary level, Hanoi has taught 2 sessions/day for many years. In addition to the program of the Ministry of Education and Training, Van Bao Primary School also has an advanced program, so it ensures that school ends at about 4:30. However, with other schools, according to the schedule, each day has 6-7 periods, students end school at more than 15 hours to help students have time to play, practice life skills, foreign languages, etc. With the current program, such a duration, the school is forced to organize and coordinate clubs related to music, fine arts, aerobics, dancing, etc., but parents must pay fees for their children to participate. The clubs in schools are currently organized on a voluntary basis. Any child who does not participate and ends school at more than 15 hours is also a difficulty and challenge for parents in picking up and dropping off.

Ms. Huong gave an example: the school can create an open library with many corners for students to sit and read books; a basketball court... for students to play soccer comfortably after school. It is not necessary that after school, every student must register for a club. There are parents who work far away and only come to pick up their children at 6pm, so students can still have a safe space to play behind the school gate.

It is necessary to increase sports fields for students to play for free after school hours.

Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training Tran The Cuong said that this school year, the locality will implement the policy of the Ministry of Education and Training to implement 2 sessions/day teaching at 100% of primary schools; at secondary and high schools, it will be implemented at schools with adequate facilities and staff to improve the quality of education and comprehensively develop students' abilities, qualities and skills. In the face of the fact that schools are lacking some specific subjects such as Music, Fine Arts, Physical Education and Sports, the Department of Education and Training has directed a unified plan to invite singers, artists, painters, etc. to collaborate in teaching, meeting the diverse learning needs in the 2nd session in schools. The Department also requires communes, wards and schools to review the conditions of facilities, staff, and survey parents' wishes to develop a suitable and effective implementation plan.

Principals of some secondary schools in Hanoi said that encouraging teaching 2 sessions/day at secondary level and increasing the teaching time of life skills, AI, STEM and arts subjects to enhance students' skills and abilities is correct, however, schools currently do not have enough teachers to arrange. Therefore, to implement, there needs to be a roadmap, training, recruiting teachers and having appropriate allowances.