Study 2 sessions/day from grade 6 to 12: Increase time, not increase pressure on students

Class at Phan Dinh Phung High School (Hanoi). Photo: Ngoc Han.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong emphasized that to organize well the teaching activities of 2 sessions/day, 3 factors must be met. First, there must be enough facilities. Here, each class must have 1 classroom. The school must have enough conditions for boarding students to stay and eat lunch at school. There must be enough playgrounds, practice grounds, physical education activities and other skills. Second, there must be enough teachers. Third, there must be a teaching program and enough activities organized in 2 sessions, suitable for the psychology and age of the students.

Advantages and disadvantages

Regarding the information that students from grades 6 to 12 will likely study 2 sessions/day at school, Ms. Huong Mai (Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi) shared that she and many parents in the class supported it because before, the secondary school where her child was studying still organized 3 afternoon classes a week. Parents registered for their children to eat at school, very assured. "If the school resumes the 2nd session, the program will also have many experiential activities, enhancing life skills as the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training shared, I would be very happy" - Ms. Mai expressed.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Van Hong - Principal of Chuong Duong Secondary School (Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) said that the school has now implemented 2 sessions/day, with no more than 7 periods per day. In addition to the main curriculum, students have additional lessons on STEM, reading culture, experiential activities, and art. The total number of periods per week is 35. With this schedule, the school can easily organize extracurricular activities for students, training and fostering for teachers on weekends without interfering with the school schedule, while still ensuring rest time for teachers and students. Students and parents are very supportive of this plan.

In Lai Chau, as of November 2024, the whole province had 109/133 schools (including 91/110 junior high schools and 18/23 high schools) implementing 5-session teaching per week. In the 2024-2025 school year, Lan Nhi Thang Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Phong Tho district, Lai Chau province) increased the number of classes to 8 periods/day (including morning and afternoon) and rearranged the timetable to suit the program and stipulated that Friday afternoon is the time for students to participate in cultural and sports activities.

Despite these advantages, some schools, due to the current physical conditions and teaching staff, cannot implement teaching 2 sessions/day. For example, Mr. Ho Tuan Anh - Principal of Quynh Phuong Secondary School (Hoang Mai town, Nghe An) said that the school currently has 34 classes but only 17 classrooms. The school is rotating 17 classes in the morning and 17 classes in the afternoon. It is expected that in the coming school year, the number of classes in the school will increase, but implementing teaching 2 sessions/day will still be a difficult problem for the school.

In fact, even at the primary level, although according to the regulations of the 2018 General Education Program, teaching 2 sessions/day is required, some places have not yet implemented it. As for secondary and high schools, up to now, the number of schools and classes teaching 2 sessions/day has increased significantly compared to 10 years ago, but it has not yet become a mandatory regulation for many reasons, some places due to lack of classrooms, some places due to lack of teachers.

Currently, nearly 20 provinces and cities across the country have implemented or are piloting a 5-day/week school week for students and Saturdays off. In Hanoi, except for non-public schools and high-quality secondary schools, there are currently only 2 public schools, Yen Hoa High School and Phan Huy Chu High School, that have 2 sessions/day. Even at Chu Van An Primary School (Hoang Mai District, Hanoi), due to lack of classrooms, students take turns taking Thursdays off every week and making up for the Saturday.

Financial problem

Supporting the idea of ​​teaching 2 sessions/day, however, many opinions also expressed concerns about where the funding for the 2nd session will come from? Ms. Bui Thi An - President of the Hanoi Women's Intellectuals Association analyzed that from the 2025-2026 school year, tuition fees from kindergarten to high school in public schools have been completely exempted. While people are happy with this information, they are also worried about the tuition fee for the 2nd session if it becomes mandatory, will it be paid or still free? In particular, if it is exempted, in addition to balancing financial resources from the local budget, it is also necessary to calculate the school's teaching staff. Because for a long time, in many secondary and high schools, students still study in the morning with a maximum of 5 periods/session. If teaching 2 sessions/day is organized, the Ministry of Education and Training requires dividing the morning into no more than 4 periods, the afternoon no more than 3 periods. Thus, teachers will have to teach 2 sessions/day but their income will not increase.

Mr. Thai Van Tai - Director of the General Education Department (Ministry of Education and Training) affirmed that the Ministry of Education and Training does not require but encourages schools to open all day for students to attend school to participate in learning and experience activities and aims to organize 2 sessions/day at the secondary level. In case schools use the 2nd session of the day to extend the regular teaching time, 100% of students must attend, and schools are not allowed to collect fees for the 2nd session from students.

According to Mr. Tai, some localities with resources determine that their students need to be equipped with some knowledge and skills to meet the development trends of society or in accordance with the local development strategy, they can allocate the budget guaranteed according to Decree 24 on management of educational activities in schools to pay for the teaching content in the second session. At that time, students will not have to pay tuition for this learning content.

Reasonable Consideration

At Nguyen Huu Tho High School (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City), the average regular curriculum is 30 periods per week, the second-session curriculum is about 6-8 periods, and the school curriculum (skills classes, STE, career guidance) is 4-6 periods. The total number of study periods per week for students is usually more than 40. This is consistent with the guidelines on teaching 2 sessions per day for secondary schools as prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training, including the maximum number of study periods per week for secondary school students is 42, high school students is 48.

Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City acknowledged that decades ago, students only learned knowledge from textbooks. Nowadays, students need to be supplemented with practical knowledge and skills, so Life Skills, Science, Foreign Languages, and Information Technology lessons are included in schools according to projects to improve students' capacity and qualifications. However, schools need to balance and clearly understand what needs to be done and how much is enough when implementing.

It is expected that this May, the Ministry of Education and Training will issue a document guiding the teaching of 2 sessions/day to help schools prepare for the next school year. It will clearly state how to organize the second session of the day, avoiding the situation similar to Circular 17 before, which schools are currently following in the direction of teaching knowledge or teaching and learning. Specifically, the Ministry of Education and Training will guide teaching in the right spirit of teaching to develop students' capacity. Instead of the previous time, with the same duration, students studied 1 session and up to 5 periods; now it will be spread out to 2 sessions and meet some content according to the needs of learners and the reality of life such as: Digital skills, AI, career guidance for students to choose the right career... The representative of the Ministry of Education and Training affirmed that this second session is mainly to meet the needs of students without being too heavy on knowledge.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam - Vice President of Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology: Ensuring staff and programs

When organizing students to study in the second session, whether it is experiential activities, sports, swimming, etc., there must be someone to guide and manage, both to ensure safety and to ensure that students participate in activities that are appropriate to the content, achieve educational effectiveness, and improve physical strength, etc. according to the requirements. At that time, teachers will certainly have to increase the number of teaching periods, but in schools that do not have a sufficient number of teachers, teachers will have to "take on" more work than the required norm. At that time, the problem lies not only in the issue of funding to pay teachers for more than the standard number of teaching periods, but also in ensuring the health of workers.

According to daidoanket.vn

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/hoc-2-buoingay-tu-lop-6-den-12-tang-thoi-gian-khong-tang-ap-luc-len-hoc-sinh-post399939.html