Ho Chi Minh City 'finalizes' regulation that students cannot leave school before 4pm

The Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City has just officially issued the daily study schedule for kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, and high schools for the 2025-2026 school year.

Ho Chi Minh City officially regulates that students cannot leave school before 4 p.m. (Source: VNE)

The specific schedule is as follows:

Kindergarten: School ends at 4:00 p.m.

School opening hours: From 6:30.

Pick up time: From 7am onwards, no later than 8am.

Drop off time: From 4pm.

Preschools must have adequate teachers and staff to ensure absolute safety for children during their time studying and living at school.

Primary, secondary and high schools do not close before 4:00 p.m.

Morning: First class starts at 7am and no later than 8am. Class ends no later than 10:30am.

Afternoon: The first period starts no earlier than 1:00 PM and no later than 1:30 PM. The end time is no earlier than 4:00 PM and no later than 5:00 PM.

The Department of Education and Training requires schools to develop a plan to open their doors to welcome students from 6:30 a.m.; students who arrive late or leave early should not gather in the area in front of the school gate. The arrangement of time slots must ensure smooth traffic in front of the gate and around the school during rush hours.

The Department of Education and Training reminds schools to proactively arrange school plans, build flexible and appropriate timetables, ensure the correct time frame; ensure the health of children, students and workers at the unit. At the same time, it is also noted that schools located close to each other on the same road need to coordinate to arrange staggered school dismissal times (at least 15 minutes) to reduce traffic congestion in the area.

The People's Committees of wards, communes and special zones monitor, inspect and urge the implementation at educational establishments under their management; promptly report and strictly handle violating units. The Department Office, the Department of Preschool Education, the Department of General Education and the departments under it coordinate to monitor, inspect and report to the Department's leaders.

The Department of Education and Training requires principals to seriously deploy and fully disseminate the contents to all cadres, teachers, employees and parents; proactively review, make timely adjustments, and closely coordinate with relevant departments to ensure proper implementation of regulations and achieve the highest efficiency in terms of school entry and dismissal times.

Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training expected school to end after 4:30 p.m. The Department required schools to open their doors to students from 6:30 a.m., not allowing early or late students to gather in front of the gate. Schools also need to calculate to ensure smooth traffic around during rush hour. In particular, schools located close to each other on the same axis need to coordinate and arrange class entry and exit times at least 15 minutes apart.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has more than 2.5 million students at all levels. Previously, the old Ho Chi Minh City area stipulated that the first period was from 7:00 to 7:15 a.m. onwards, with a maximum of 8 periods per day.

However, the Ministry of Education and Training 's guidelines for teaching two sessions per day, issued in early August, stipulate that the number of periods will be reduced to seven. Many principals said that if the time frame of the previous school year was maintained, students would leave school after 3 p.m., making it difficult for parents to pick them up.

Therefore, before the Department's directive, some schools proactively delayed the morning and afternoon class start time by 15-30 minutes so that dismissal time fell after 4:00 p.m.

Two days ago, the Department of Education and Training also asked schools to arrange their timetables reasonably, not spreading them to Saturdays, to avoid disrupting their lives. If so, schools should nurture good students, tutor those who have not achieved, or organize sports clubs based on the voluntary spirit and initiative of students.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/tp-ho-chi-minh-chot-quy-dinh-hoc-sinh-khong-tan-hoc-truoc-16h-327465.html