Many situations that were both funny and embarrassing.

In recent days, the events at Tay Mo 3 Primary School in Nam Tu Liem District have attracted significant public attention. In a ward with 70,000 residents and dozens of high-rise apartment buildings, there are only two public primary schools, a long-standing problem of school shortages. After a long wait, the newly built Tay Mo 3 Public Primary School opened, bringing joy to residents. Many parents secretly hoped that from this school year, their children would no longer have to travel 4-5 km along dusty, truck-filled roads, but would only need to walk a few hundred meters to school. However, when they went to the school to submit their applications, they were informed that Tay Mo 3 Primary School had already reached its enrollment limit, and this year the school would only be enrolling first-grade students, with each class limited to 35 students.

According to information from the People's Committee of Nam Tu Liem District, Tay Mo 3 Primary School was separated from Tay Mo Primary School and received 1,111 enrollment slots from it; of which, 100% of students in grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 transferred from Tay Mo Primary School, and 460 students in grade 1 (whose enrollment was previously handled by Tay Mo Primary School). Unsatisfied with this explanation, hundreds of parents gathered at Tay Mo 3 Primary School to receive a satisfactory answer from the local authorities. The People's Committee of Nam Tu Liem District and the District Department of Education and Training carefully considered and reviewed the situation to develop the most optimal solution, addressing the parents' concerns and ensuring the students' right to education.

The incident at Tay Mo 3 Primary School is a fairly typical story, reflecting the current shortage of public schools in Hanoi , especially in rapidly developing areas with many apartment buildings. However, the situation of large crowds gathering and queuing, even breaking down school gates, in order to submit applications for their children's enrollment, occurred more than a decade ago at the Experimental Primary and Secondary School in Hanoi. And during the 2023 enrollment season, the scene of parents queuing overnight to submit enrollment applications for their children also occurred repeatedly in the inner city area.

I remember that in June 2023, about 200 parents lined up from late afternoon until overnight at the gate of Van Bao Primary School in Ha Dong district, hoping to submit applications for their children to enter first grade. Nguyen Van Truong, a resident of Ha Dong district, recounted: "On the afternoon of June 12th, everyone lined up orderly, chatting and talking to each other very amicably. But after a night of waiting around, at the beginning of the morning of June 13th, when the school started accepting applications, some people who arrived later started pushing and shoving, causing chaos at the school gate. Some people were even crushed, their clothes torn. The situation only calmed down after the local police arrived and asked the parents to remain calm and maintain order."

The scene of parents queuing at the school gate, carrying plastic chairs and water bottles, determined to stay up all night, occurred on July 5, 2023, at Hoang Cau High School (Dong Da District). Hoping to secure a spot for their children to submit applications for 10th grade, many parents waited at the school gate from the evening of July 4th, maintaining their positions overnight until dawn. They held out until nearly 11 am on July 5th, with temperatures reaching almost 40 degrees Celsius. Exhausted and drenched in sweat, their faces contorted with worry, they refused to leave their positions to submit their applications.

Besides the haunting scene of people queuing overnight to submit applications, Hanoi also witnessed a unique situation in its enrollment process: a lottery system to secure a place at a public kindergarten. This ironic situation occurred at Hoang Liet Kindergarten in Hoang Mai District on the morning of August 27, 2022. According to the school's administration, the lottery system was implemented because for the 2022-2023 school year, Hoang Liet Kindergarten received 226 applications for 5-year-old children, 100 more than expected. For the 4- and 3-year-old groups, the number of applications was 290 and 423 respectively (with an expected enrollment of only 88 and 245 children). Thus, the school had 380 applications exceeding its quota, as the total number of students that can be admitted according to regulations is 559 children aged 3-5. The lottery for preschool places was tense, dramatic, and filled with sweat and tears from parents.

In the guidelines for implementing the 2024-2025 school year program for primary schools, the Ministry of Education and Training reiterated the old regulation in the Primary School Charter, which stipulates that the class size should not exceed 35 students per class, and required all schools nationwide to comply. Following this information, teachers and parents of public schools in Hanoi's inner districts believe that the regulation on class sizes is only feasible for schools in suburban areas. In the inner districts, due to the rapid population growth, especially the rapid increase in population due to migration, the number of students per class is unlikely to meet the requirement.

Assessing the impact of overcrowded classrooms on students' health, Dr. Nguyen Linh, a specialist at Hospital 198 - Ministry of Public Security, stated that students having to sit in cramped conditions, with desks and chairs placed close together and near the blackboard, is one of the factors contributing to eye diseases in children. Surveys show that in many primary school classes in Hanoi, more than 85% of students suffer from refractive errors, mainly myopia, and require glasses.

Exceeding the student-to-class ratio is also a reason hindering the process of new accreditation and re-accreditation of national standard schools for many schools in the inner city districts. For more than a decade, Cau Giay has consistently been the leading district in the city in terms of educational quality, both general and specialized, but the percentage of schools achieving national standard accreditation in this district is very modest, not to mention the district's constant struggle to maintain the standard.

In the 2022-2023 school year, Cau Giay district had 99 schools (an increase of 4 schools compared to the previous school year). By September 2022, the total number of schools achieving national standard accreditation in the district was 20 (6 kindergartens, 7 primary schools, and 7 secondary schools), accounting for 20%; of which only 12 were public schools. Reporting to the Hanoi City People's Council survey team in October 2022, the Head of the Education and Training Department of Cau Giay district, Pham Ngoc Anh, stated that public schools in the district had not yet been recognized as meeting national standard accreditation due to exceeding the prescribed student-to-classroom ratio and lacking functional rooms. Some schools had excessively small areas, lacking space for activities, while some newly established schools had not yet met the required operating time.

The shortage of schools and classrooms has become a key topic of discussion at socio-cultural conferences in the city in general, and at conferences of the education and training sector in particular. This is also a major concern for the people of Hanoi, especially before each enrollment period for the first grade.