The reason why many localities cannot let students take Saturday off

The school has 45 classes but only has more than 20 classrooms, which is the reason why many local schools cannot let students study 5 days a week and have Saturdays off.

Up to now, nearly 20 provinces and cities across the country have implemented or are piloting students studying 5 days/week and having Saturdays off. However, in some localities, this cannot be widely applied due to factors such as facilities, number of classrooms, and teaching staff.

At Nguyen Gia Thieu High School (Long Bien District, Hanoi ), Principal Le Trung Kien said that the school cannot currently apply Saturday off due to conditions not allowing it.

“The most important thing is to have facilities, ensuring enough classrooms for each class/room/session. However, the school currently has only 23 rooms but up to 45 classes. To implement this model, the school needs to expand and renovate at least a dozen more classrooms,” said Mr. Kien.

Many schools cannot allow students to study 5 days a week because of the facilities. Photo: Hoang Ha

The idea of ​​cramming in lessons from Monday to Friday is also not feasible. According to the principal, if one more lesson is added per session, students will have to study until after 12 noon. This can make them tired and reduce the quality of their studies.

"Thus, the option of having Saturdays off for many schools in Hanoi, especially inner-city schools, will not be feasible due to the lack of enough classrooms," said Mr. Kien.

Cao Ba Quat High School (Gia Lam District, Hanoi) is the school that has started applying for students to study 5 mornings and 2 afternoons since the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. According to Principal Hoang Duc Thuan, to do this, the school had to develop a detailed and meticulous plan to ensure the content of the subject program. In addition, the school also had to mobilize facilities with 37 classrooms serving 45 classes.

According to Mr. Thuan, there are 3 barriers that prevent many schools in Hanoi from implementing 5-day/week learning. Among them, the biggest barrier is the physical facilities to accommodate one classroom per class. In addition, there are some new schools that lack teachers, making it difficult to arrange and schedule classes.

Another barrier is that many schools are still waiting for instructions from superiors even though the school conditions allow it to be implemented. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Training has issued a document guiding the implementation of the school education plan. "Schools can completely take the initiative to arrange and build timetables suitable to teaching conditions and students' abilities. If they are clever, schools can completely let students take Saturdays off," said Mr. Thuan.

Since Cao Ba Quat High School applied the Saturday off policy for students, Mr. Thuan said that students and teachers are excited because they have a full rest time, helping them to recharge after a week.

“For students who live far away, they will have an extra day off to visit their families, helping to reduce study pressure and create a comfortable mindset when returning to school at the beginning of the week,” said Mr. Thuan.

Currently, many provinces and cities have implemented or are piloting students studying 5 days/week and having Saturdays off. Photo: Hoang Ha

In Ninh Binh , nearly 70 secondary and high schools have piloted working 40 hours per week, equivalent to 5 days. After a period of implementation, in early March, the Department of Education and Training of this province held a conference to review and evaluate the effectiveness before considering widespread application.

Ms. Doan Kim Dung, Principal of Nguyen Hue High School, said that when applying the system, the school did not encounter many difficulties because it had adequate facilities, ensuring 32 classes with 32 classrooms.

“During implementation, the school only had one small problem. The Department of Education and Training instructed that if Saturdays are off, schools will arrange the program to switch to two afternoon sessions.

However, with the Physical Education subject, due to the small number of teachers, the school has to combine classes in one session, which can be very crowded, up to 160 students. In addition, teaching this subject in the form of a club, for example badminton, the school only has 3 courts, which cannot guarantee such a large number of students," said Ms. Dung.

Therefore, this principal proposed a solution to switch to studying 3 afternoons/week. When giving his opinion, the Department of Education and Training assessed it as reasonable and many schools in the area are also applying this solution.

However, to widely apply the policy of students being absent on Saturdays at schools, according to Ms. Dung, it still depends a lot on the physical conditions such as classrooms, learning equipment...

Thus, due to inadequate facilities, many local schools are still unable to let students study 5 days a week and have Saturdays off.

In the guidelines for teaching 2 sessions/day at secondary level, the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates that if teaching all day, schools are not allowed to teach more than 4 periods in the morning for secondary level, 5 periods for high school; maximum 3 periods in the afternoon and a week is not more than 6 school days, applicable to both levels. The maximum number of periods per week for secondary level students is 42, high school is 48.

Nearly 20 provinces and cities let students have Saturdays off after Circular 29 After Circular 29 regulating extra teaching and learning took effect, many more localities have piloted the model of letting middle school and high school students have Saturdays off before expanding it widely.