Confused about teaching two sessions a day?

TOO MANY VARIATIONS

On online forums for parents and students in Hanoi, since the start of the school year, there have been many concerns about the two-session-per-day teaching schedule that schools are planning to implement.

Many have expressed concerns about the implementation of a two-session-per-day schooling schedule with no more than seven lessons per day for junior high school students, aiming to reduce academic pressure. However, schools are circumventing the regulations and distorting the rules. Some schools combine five morning lessons with two afternoon lessons, using the remaining afternoon time as "after-school care" but in reality, it's for cultural subjects, for which parents have to pay (now disguised as after-school care fees). These "care" fees are very high, contrary to the resolution's guidelines on after-school care. Some schools register with external centers and direct their students to these affiliated centers for extra after-school tutoring.

Parents at primary schools also have many concerns about the way the school schedule is arranged, with two teaching sessions per day, especially since some schools design their schedules so that regular classes end around 3:20 PM. At the same time, the schools organize many paid after-school clubs. Since regular classes end after 3 PM, and parents finish work no earlier than 4:30 PM or 5 PM, many parents are forced to enroll their children in these after-school clubs. Otherwise, they would have to hire someone to pick up and drop off their children…

Lúng túng trong dạy học 2 buổi / ngày và những thách thức từ phụ huynh - Ảnh 1. — The 2025-2026 school year will be the first year that schools implement a two-session-per-day teaching schedule, according to the new guidelines from the Ministry of Education and Training.

A parent whose child attends a primary school in Ha Dong ward (Hanoi) shared a list of nearly a dozen paid after-school clubs that the school organizes for parents to register and choose from. This parent said that even though they didn't want to, they had to choose a few clubs for their child to join while waiting for their parents to pick them up.

Furthermore, the practice of scheduling timetables that alternate between core and elective subjects continues to recur, making things difficult for students. If students don't want to be "wandering" outside the school grounds, they are forced to register for these classes.

A major "bottleneck" in human resources.

To date, Hanoi has not yet issued specific guidelines on organizing two-session-per-day teaching for schools in the city. Currently, the leaders of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training say they are requesting communes, wards, and schools to review the conditions of facilities, teaching staff, and related factors; and at the same time, survey parents' wishes to develop a plan for implementation that is practical, effective, and sustainable.

According to several secondary school principals in Hanoi, the Ministry of Education and Training's encouragement to increase the time allocated to teaching life skills and arts subjects is reasonable, but a roadmap for training, recruiting, or inviting experts to assist in teaching is necessary. However, human resources remain a major bottleneck. Notably, many teachers are also concerned about the allowance system if they are assigned to teach a second class session.

The Ministry of Education and Training's directive requires schools to survey the learning needs of students attending a second session before the start of the new school year. However, in reality, not all schools implement this. The principal of a junior high school in Hanoi stated that in the 2025-2026 school year, the school will implement a two-session-per-day schedule for grade 6, while grades 7, 8, and 9 will continue with a one-session-per-day schedule. This will be announced immediately when parents submit applications directly to the school, without conducting a survey.

Many also argue that, according to current regulations, the second session should not include teaching the curriculum and core subjects, while students have a great need for exam preparation and knowledge consolidation. Therefore, if teaching is organized as two sessions per day, many parents will disagree, preferring to use that time for exam preparation, foreign language enhancement, etc.

Lúng túng dạy học 2 buổi/ngày - Ảnh 1. — At the start of the new school year, schools are implementing a two-session-per-day schedule. Many schools are struggling with the organization, causing frustration among parents.

LOCAL AUTHORITIES ARE BOTH PROVIDING GUIDANCE AND WAITING... GUIDANCE

Reports indicate that some localities have issued guidelines for teaching two sessions per day. Mr. Bach Dang Khoa, Deputy Director of the Bac Ninh Department of Education and Training, stated that at the secondary level, two-session teaching per day should only be organized and implemented in schools that have sufficient teaching staff, facilities, teaching equipment, and funding; ensuring that it does not overload students, protects their health and psychology; and allows for flexible allocation of time between the first and second sessions. A single morning/afternoon session should not combine both regular and extracurricular classes.

According to Mr. Khoa, the implementation must ensure openness and transparency; opinions must be sought from teachers, students, parents, and relevant organizations before approving the plan for organizing two-session-per-day teaching. The Department also assigned its finance department to develop a budget plan and submit a specific proposal.

According to the guidelines of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, the content of the two-session-per-day teaching schedule is arranged flexibly. The second session will cover two areas: reviewing and tutoring students who have not met the curriculum requirements; and nurturing gifted students; and organizing review sessions for students preparing for the 10th grade entrance exam and the high school graduation exam. In addition, teaching content can be arranged into separate sessions based on students' preferences to facilitate their participation, with each student attending a maximum of 11 sessions per week.

Specifically for lower secondary schools, educational institutions should proactively propose the need for assigning teachers to teach across schools within each commune or ward to address localized teacher shortages or surpluses and to organize two-session teaching per day.

Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung, Head of the Secondary Education Department of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, stated that organizing two-session-per-day teaching must be done on a voluntary basis and depends on the actual situation in each school, and no additional fees should be charged to students.

Similarly, Mr. Trinh Dinh Hai, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Ninh province, affirmed that teaching two sessions per day is not mandatory but is organized based on the needs of students and parents. The first session still covers the main curriculum that the school must ensure is completed. The second session is supplementary, focusing on developing talents and supporting individualized learning. All these activities must comply with regulations on supplementary teaching and learning, and should not be subject to fees or additional costs for parents. Mr. Hai also stated that to effectively organize two sessions per day, the primary requirement is a sufficient and appropriately allocated teaching staff.

Lúng túng dạy học 2 buổi/ngày - Ảnh 2. — Many localities are awaiting specific guidance from the Ministry of Education and Training on mobilizing social resources when implementing a two-session-per-day teaching schedule.

However, local authorities and schools also argue that despite such principled guidelines, organizing a second teaching session without charging students would require the state budget to allocate significantly more funds to schools for recruiting and contracting teachers. Besides human resources, infrastructure is also a major challenge. A minimum classroom-to-school ratio of 1:1 is necessary for students to have space for lunch breaks, rest periods, and boarding facilities. This necessitates additional staffing and job positions, while the education sector already faces a shortage of personnel.

Therefore, local authorities say that although there are guidelines in principle, how to implement it and what resources are needed to organize two-session-per-day teaching at the lower and upper secondary levels still depend on specific guidance from the Ministry of Education and Training regarding the mobilization of social resources, whether fees can be collected from parents, which content is allowed to be charged, and which content is "prohibited". "Without such specific guidance, schools that hire additional contract teachers, invite artists, athletes, etc., to teach will have to pay for these services, but collecting money from parents for the second session would easily violate regulations on revenue and expenditure and regulations on supplementary teaching and learning," shared a leader of a Department of Education and Training in the north.

High school students need to rest on weekends.

Middle and high school students have a lot of classes from Monday to Friday, morning and afternoon, which is very tiring. They need more rest on weekends. On weekends, most parents arrange for their children to take extra classes in arts, sports, and foreign languages. Scheduling two or three classes on Saturday mornings creates difficulties for parents in terms of transportation. On the other hand, having two days off on the weekend gives students more flexibility in their studies. They can study subjects they enjoy and want to pursue, and especially, they have the opportunity to develop their self-learning skills.

Tran Nhan Trung (Teacher in Ho Chi Minh City)

The Ministry of Education and Training needs to issue unified directives.

The requirement for students to attend classes on Saturday mornings shows that schools are including too many subjects and lessons from the school's (fee-paying) curriculum in the regular timetable, which goes against the spirit of the Ministry of Education and Training's policy of teaching two sessions a day to reduce academic pressure on students, giving them time to rest, play, and recharge... Therefore, the Ministry

The Ministry of Education and Training needs unified guidance and specific, clear regulations on the maximum number of subjects and lessons per week that each grade level can study within the school curriculum, along with detailed instructions on teaching two sessions per day for each type of school and class.

Nguyen Van Luc (Teacher in Khanh Hoa)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/lung-tung-day-hoc-2-buoi-ngay-185250911233135214.htm