Graduated from the Faculty of Literature, Hue University of Education, graduated in the mid-1980s. In nearly 10 years of teaching, I have never had an extra class.
Why is there a period when teachers rarely teach extra classes?
At that time, I did not teach extra classes for many reasons. Teaching in the highlands of Dak Lak province, most of the students were children of families who went to the new economic zone or freely migrated from Quang Nam-Da Nang, Thai Binh, Cao Bang provinces, etc., so how could they have money to study extra classes? Moreover, even if teachers taught extra classes to improve students' knowledge so that they could confidently enter the exam room, they would not have time to study extra classes because they had to work to support their families.
Current extra teaching and learning must comply with the regulations in Circular 29.
On the parents' side, many families at that time considered sending their children to school as a solution to "earn knowledge" so that later, when they passed the exams, they would have a chance to change their lives. Therefore, due to living conditions, the views of many parents were also very different: Firstly, there were some families who focused on advising their children to study hard, spending time for them to study and review very carefully and always nurturing the desire to excel; Secondly, there were some families who sent their children to school to study in a "whatever happens, whatever knowledge they can get, that's it", "if they don't succeed, they will become a person".
Among the 14 pedagogical students who graduated and went to the highlands to teach at that school, we often told each other that we should give free tutoring, sometimes teaching in class, sometimes exchanging lessons before and after class. If any student needed it, we could go together in a group to the dormitory of each subject teacher for extra guidance. Usually, it was a request from the homeroom teachers who wanted their students to improve, or maybe a few individual students who did not understand the lesson and needed extra support. That tutoring time often fell a few months before the final exam. The biggest consolation was that when we returned to school later, most of the students had grown up properly, not to mention that some of them were successful and serving society.
'Grace' teaches senior classes
After many years of teaching in the highlands, I transferred to "contract teaching" at a secondary school in Dong Nai province. Because I wanted to return but could not transfer jobs, I had to resign under the one-time severance payment system (each year of service is paid one month of basic salary). So it was like starting over, meaning the payroll was removed.
One thing that is troubling is that no one can separate the results from the extra classes or the regular classes, because the knowledge in each extra class is no different from the model in each regular class, which has been determined by textbooks, reference books, and solution guides. And each set of questions for the exams almost does not "slip" beyond that basic knowledge.
At that time, I realized the competitive meaning of tutoring in schools. A literature group of 4 people, one person taught 4 final classes (grade 9), considered "warm", because almost every student had to take extra classes after hours, to compete for the entrance exam to grade 10. Similarly, other groups such as math and English were the same. Let's calculate, each class had 40 students, each student earned 20,000 VND per month in the late 1990s, multiplied by about 160 students, it was a lot.
Because of many hardships, I had to ride my bike to Long Khanh market at 4am every day to buy all kinds of things (fruits, sugarcane, candy, etc.) to deliver to the shops along Highway 1A to earn money to buy milk for my children. Every time I cycled around the night before dawn, I wished to… share 1 or 2 classes so I could teach them to reduce my hardship. That was a real dream with the difficult problem of making ends meet.
Students take extra classes at an after-school cultural center in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of February 19, a few days after Circular 29 on extra teaching and learning took effect.
On the other hand, I have attended a few classes or listened to the lectures of the teacher who received the "favor" of teaching the final classes, but the quality was not much. In comparison, I could teach much better, but I could not get in, because with the "status of a contract teacher", I had no position or voice in the general machinery of a teacher council where everyone was on the payroll, always "reserving" the best opportunities for each other, if not to say fighting, oppressing, competing with each other to teach extra classes.
I also do not know how much the subjects that are often taught by teachers have improved the quality of knowledge of the students in each exam. I can only admit one thing for sure, the exam results that the students receive are all positive. Almost all the scores of the students who study "average" can "pass", only a few are so bad that they fail the exam. However, one thing that is troubling is that no one can separate the results from the extra lessons or the regular study, because the knowledge in each extra lesson is no different from the model in each regular class, which has been determined by textbooks, reference books, and instruction books. And each set of questions for the exams almost does not "slip" beyond that basic knowledge.
Where is the "root" of the problem of teachers' extra teaching?
Therefore, when receiving and reading the regulations prohibiting extra teaching or if extra teaching requires registering a business household or establishing an enterprise, I learned many things from my many days of thinking.
That is, is that regulation the root of the problem or just the tip of the iceberg? Is the regulation aimed at dealing with the current situation of a group of teachers "using classroom knowledge to teach at home", "oppressing students in all ways so that they have to take extra classes", or is it aimed at an education that every parent wishes for their children? That is an education that teaches how to be a human being, soft skills to cope with life and progresses to teaching how to live, attitudes towards life, stimulating creativity and equipping knowledge in a meaningful way so that later on, students can support themselves, their families and devote their efforts to contributing and serving society.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/day-them-nhin-tu-goc-do-giao-vien-185250220183336431.htm
Comment (0)