Long story of pressure on young shoulders...

Children go to school and the pressure of "other people's children"

Recently, the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences organized a seminar on “Let Vietnamese children grow up with a stress-free childhood”. Professor Le Anh Vinh, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, shared a story that made him think a lot about the pressure that students are under. During the 10 years of leading the national team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad, once when taking his students out to eat before the exam, a very nervous team member told him: “Teacher, there are only 2 more days and I will never have to compete in math again”.

What surprised Professor Le Anh Vinh was that he was one of the best students on the team. And he had to say right away that he did not put any pressure on them, nor did he himself feel pressured about the team's performance, so that the student would be less stressed when entering the exam. At that time, to balance the student's psychology, Professor Vinh said he said: "Go into the exam room like a boy in elementary school and do the math problems in the IMO exam like the best math problems in your life, not for the score or the prize." Later, that student was successful in math at a top university in the US. However, the question of why students are under such pressure is still something that makes Professor Le Anh Vinh ponder.

Regarding student evaluation, especially primary school students in recent years, Professor Le Anh Vinh also shared the story of a child coming home from school and boasting to his father that he got 9 points, but that was the lowest in the class, the father was sad. On the contrary, when the child got 6 points but was the highest in the class, the parents were still excited and praised "you are so good".

For example, the change in primary school student assessment from Circular 30, which abolished regular grading, and then schools and teachers were under great pressure because they did not know whether their comments could accurately and adequately assess students. Therefore, although the assessment idea was very progressive and humane, this Circular had to be adjusted a lot before it could be implemented in practice.

According to Director Le Anh Vinh, we often think that more is better, if we combine both scoring and comments it will be better than just one form. It is good for teachers to praise students, but parents still need her to give them 9 or 10 points. However, according to Mr. Vinh, a research result has shown that evaluating by scoring or scoring combined with comments does not bring significant changes to students' learning outcomes; only evaluating by comments brings the expected changes. Because according to Mr. Vinh, when there are scores, no one cares about the comments and the true nature of what is happening in the classroom. We have too many students with high scores, many 10s, but there are many problems... Scores are not everything.

Emphasizing the importance of making children happy and carefree when going to school, especially in primary school, Professor Vinh recalled that there was a proposal to extend the number of years of primary school from 5 to 6 years, which caused much debate. Many countries have applied this model, the reason is that they want children to have longer study time and live a less stressful life while in primary school. Primary school is not about knowledge, achievements, and scores, but is a level of education to train qualities, personality, and attitudes so that children can confidently step into life.

Professor Le Anh Vinh expressed that many parents tend to have too high expectations for their children, wanting their children to achieve outstanding results, to be ranked first, to be champions, to be invincible to make their parents proud. However, this unintentionally creates a huge psychological burden for children. Achievements and rankings are too small goals for childhood. At primary school, the bigger goal to pursue is to let children live their childhood, without pressure. Children need to be loved and supported, not achievement machines. “Primary school is an extremely important level of education, the foundation for a child's development. We always want the most visible things such as scores, results through exams and turn them into expectations. But we forget that a child needs to have the best foundation, the best confidence to be able to go a long way.”

Need to spread, inspire more than pressure

There have been elementary school students who were overwhelmed with a tight study schedule in order to achieve high academic results as their parents expected, causing them to fall into depression and their exam results to decline... According to Master Pham Thi Phuong Thuc, Center for Psychology and Education Research, Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, there are usually 3 factors that put children under pressure.

How to make “Every day at school is a happy day” not just a slogan. (Illustration: MM)

Firstly, the pressure that children put on themselves to achieve a certain goal. Secondly, the pressure of achievement from their family and thirdly, from school and teacher exams. Especially the pressure in studying, the requirements that teachers, parents and schools set for students, make children feel anxious and stressed. The high requirements in the curriculum at better quality schools will create greater pressure to study. This leads to many negative consequences for children, from physical to mental, even making children tend to be physically violent and abuse stimulants, reducing their academic performance.

Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, believes that pressure is inevitable in life... Living around adults with a lot of pressure, teachers with a lot of pressure, children cannot avoid pressure. Also according to Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam, through many psychological studies, it has been shown that the more people try not to be pressured, the more pressure they fall into. Just like telling ourselves to forget someone, the more we remember. So instead of resisting pressure, we need to equip children with problem-solving skills, improve their ability to withstand pressure. Instead of comparing "other people's children", parents should show them the spread of inspiration rather than imposing...

Dr. Ta Ngoc Tri, Deputy Director of the General Education Department, Ministry of Education and Training, said that society sees that children have a lot of pressure, the problem is to find the root cause. Recently, the education sector has innovated the textbook program. One of the important things in the innovation of textbook programs and general education is to shift from equipping knowledge and skills to developing qualities and abilities. To develop qualities and abilities for students, we must innovate teaching methods and innovate testing and evaluation. With the innovation of teaching methods, from students learning passively - which is also a type of pressure, now students are proactively participating in activities under the guidance of teachers, organizing learning activities with practice.

In addition, schools must innovate assessment and testing. From repetitive, memorization tests to receiving and transforming knowledge into competence. In addition to teaching innovation, schools need to build a movement of happy schools and active students. Some schools have made changes such as when meeting parents, they will meet individually with the teacher, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of their children, thereby helping children progress and surpass themselves, not comparing themselves with other students. This is one of the measures to reduce pressure.

However, according to Dr. Tri, it is not enough for schools and teachers to reduce pressure on students. Parents must also understand that the ultimate goal is for their children to have a happy life. That happy life is not about winning this or that prize, but happiness is about being free to be creative, developing the capacity and creativity of each child. "Of course we still need pressure, but pressure in a positive way, if we have not completed the task today, we must try to complete the work by coordinating with friends... That is the motivation for students to reduce pressure, thereby creating a learning environment for students to develop their qualities and capacities, on the basis of which they will have a happy life in the future."

Continue to improve the law to protect children

According to Vice President of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children's Rights Ha Dinh Bon, pressure is a situation that any child may have to face during their growing up journey. Pressure can occur for many reasons and cause unpredictable harm, affecting the physical and mental health of children. If parents put pressure on their children to achieve high scores, to win first prize, to become champions or winners in competitions that are not what the children want, leading to consequences for their mental health, it can also be considered a violation of children's rights. Therefore, Mr. Ha Dinh Bon proposed the solution of continuing to improve the system of legal policies on child protection and care. In particular, it is necessary to build and promulgate a mechanism to synchronously and fully implement all children's rights, no rights must be taken lightly and the rights must be ensured to be implemented harmoniously and reasonably...

Uyen Na