Reduce pressure on children

How to help children grow up with a stress-free childhood is a question that many people are concerned about. Clearly recognizing the causes of this situation, families, schools, and society must work together to protect and care for children, giving them the best.

Pressure from scores and achievements

Director of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences Le Anh Vinh said that many studies have shown that, in primary school, students should not be pressured by the amount of knowledge, achievements or scores. Instead, they need to be trained in personality, attitude and necessary skills to be confident and steady in life. This is an important foundation stage for a child's comprehensive development. However, we often focus too much on things that are easy to measure, such as scores or exam results, turning them into expectations, forgetting that the most important thing is to help children build a solid foundation and confidence to continue on the long road ahead.

Students of Viet Lap Primary School (Tan Yen District, Bac Giang Province) during recess. Photo: Van Anh.

According to the 2025 Junior High School and High School Admission Regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the application of a unified nationwide admission method to enroll students in grade 6 aims to reduce academic pressure and avoid the situation where each locality has its own admission method, leading to inequality and students having to take extra classes to take the entrance exam.

Similarly, the high school graduation exam with 2 compulsory subjects and 2 elective subjects also reduced the number of subjects compared to previous years. This not only helps reduce the pressure of exams but also allows students to choose subjects that suit their abilities, interests and career orientation, which are highly appreciated and welcomed by society.

Recently, the regulation in Circular 29 prohibiting extra teaching for primary school students except for art, physical education, and life skills training has been welcomed by public opinion because it helps children live their childhood, outside of school hours, they need to play, entertain and learn necessary knowledge and skills in life. Previously, the Ministry of Education and Training had made changes in regulations on testing and evaluating the learning process for primary school students in the direction of developing learners' capacity, not only evaluating by scores but also by comments, evaluating the whole process of each student's progress...

A series of solutions implemented by the education sector in recent times have been highly appreciated by experts in helping to reduce pressure on children. However, the pressure on achievements and scores originating from the family and the surrounding social environment makes children no longer feel the joy and innocence appropriate to their age.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thanh Nam - Vice Principal of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) pointed out that we are currently living in a world of pressure. Parents are under pressure, teachers are under pressure, and children are also under pressure. Therefore, it is important that parents and teachers equip children with skills to develop their capacity and improve their ability to adapt to pressure, helping children deal with pressure more positively.

Give the best to children

Principal of Vinh Yen Secondary School (Vinh Phuc) Trieu Thi Thanh Ha acknowledged that, in addition to focusing on implementing solutions to improve the quality of education, the school pursues a strategy of balancing psychology, balancing between studying and playing for students so that every day at school is a happy day. Accordingly, the school continuously organizes appropriate collective activities, encouraging students to participate such as folk dancing, ensemble performances, "Ring the Golden Bell" competitions, organizing sports and art clubs, etc. The school also invites psychologists to "reduce pressure" for students through talks about Gen Z, school mental health, preventing school violence, etc. Seminars on expertise and life skills also bring a comfortable atmosphere for teachers and students. Therefore, students here study hard, play hard, helping to inspire creativity and talent of students, so they achieve many high achievements in competitions at all levels.

The viewpoint of “taking children as the center, giving the best to children” and listening to and responding to children’s aspirations has been mentioned many times, but implementing it in practice is not easy for both families, schools and society. Accordingly, parents must fulfill their responsibility to raise and educate their children to become useful citizens for society, to keep up with and adapt to the current scientific and technological revolution, but also need to encourage and understand children so as not to bear too much pressure, affecting their psychological and physiological development.

According to Vice President of the Vietnam Association for the Protection of Children’s Rights Ha Dinh Bon, in the coming time, it is necessary to continue to perfect 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 overlooked and the rights must be ensured to be implemented harmoniously and reasonably.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/giam-ap-luc-doi-voi-tre-em-10302034.html