The 2024-2025 school year is the fourth year that Ban Qua Secondary School, Bat Xat District , organizes 5-day-a-week classes . 158 students from grades 6 to 9 will only study at school from Monday to Friday, the official Saturday class schedule will be arranged on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

Ms. Bui Thi Hong Mo, the school's principal, said that the above learning arrangement is supported by parents and students.

According to Ms. Mo, with the majority of ethnic minority students having 2 days off on the weekend, they will be able to help their families more. As a result, their attendance will also improve, and the number of students taking time off on the weekend has decreased significantly over the past 4 years.

"At first, students who had just changed their school schedule were a bit confused and neglected their regular studies in the afternoon, but after only the first two months of implementation, they got used to it and seemed to enjoy having Saturdays off," said Ms. Mo.

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English class at Phuc Khanh Primary and Secondary School No. 1, Bao Yen district. Photo: Duc Hoang

Mr. Pham Duc Vinh, Principal of Phuc Khanh Primary and Secondary School No. 1 (Bao Yen district) said that the biggest benefit of studying 5 days/week is that students, parents and teachers can conveniently arrange family chores during the 2 weekends and the timetable will be almost fixed throughout the school year.

Mr. Vinh shared that in the past, to ensure the 40-hour work week for employees, the school had to arrange the school schedule and timetable so that teachers would take turns taking Saturday off. Now, all 28 teachers of the school will have Saturday off and will combine Saturday classes on Monday and Tuesday afternoons.

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Teacher Hoang Thi Nhuong tutors students during break time. Photo: Duc Hoang

Ms. Hoang Thi Nhuong, Biology teacher, homeroom teacher of grade 8 at Phuc Khanh Primary and Secondary School No. 1, feels comfortable having 2 full days off on the weekend to take care of her family.

"At first, teaching 5 consecutive days was hard and tiring, but after a few months, the teachers and I got used to it," said Ms. Nhuong.

According to Ms. Nhuong, when students have Saturday off, their families must pay more attention to them to avoid letting them stay home and indulge in social evils.

After 5 years of piloting the policy of allowing students to take Saturdays off, the Lao Cai Department of Education and Training said that the implementation of the above policy has brought many good results. Specifically, organizing teaching 5 days/week, students have 2 days off on weekends, teachers have conditions to improve their professional qualifications; students can participate in experiential activities, extracurricular activities and practice life skills, develop comprehensively...

According to the Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province, basically, when organizing teaching 5 days/week, it received consensus and support from teachers, students, and parents. In the process of surveying feedback from all parties, the Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province said that parents and students were excited because they had more time for their children to be close to their parents, suitable for both state officials and workers.

The Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province said that the pilot was implemented in 2019. At this time, other than Lao Cai, no other province has implemented it (only a few private schools in Hanoi and Hai Phong have implemented it).

The pilot was implemented by the provincial Department of Education and Training based on the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training and the proposals of the Departments of Education and Training and educational institutions throughout the province. On that basis, the Lao Cai Department of Education and Training issued Document No. 1631 dated September 26, 2019 on guidelines for organizing the implementation of the secondary education plan. The Department assigned the Department of Education and Training to implement teaching 5 days/week based on the actual situation, but must ensure the given principles.

The principles include: Ensuring the school year schedule of the Provincial People's Committee; Ensuring the duration of subjects and educational activities as prescribed in the general education program at the secondary level; not cutting the program; Ensuring the rate of students attending school regularly; Not forcing and causing "overload" for students.

According to the Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province, the application of teaching 5 days/week does not increase the burden on teachers. On the contrary, most teachers are very excited, especially teachers in mountainous areas far from home, who have more time to take care of their children and family; have more time to restore their labor force in the difficult working conditions of mountainous areas.