Mr. Trinh Van Cuong - Principal of Muong Lat Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities - Secondary School said that before Circular 29 regulating extra teaching and learning by the Ministry of Education and Training, the school still organized review classes for students in the afternoon. However, when the circular took effect, the school stopped doing this.

“The school has 57 grade 9 students, of which 32 are taking the entrance exam to grade 10 at Thanh Hoa ethnic boarding high schools. These schools all require high scores, so teachers have organized free review and exam preparation classes for the students,” said Mr. Cuong.

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In addition to regular classes, students of Muong Lat Boarding and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities receive free review and exam preparation from teachers. Photo: Contributor

According to Mr. Cuong, boarding school students are admitted directly to grade 10 of high schools. However, to enter the province's boarding high schools, they have to take an exam. Meanwhile, the general level of learning quality of boarding students is not high, so teachers in the school have to improve their knowledge.

“For mountainous areas, getting students to school is already a difficult problem, organizing extra classes is even more difficult, so teachers in mountainous areas who register to teach extra classes are rare. The school board is also calculating the cost of extra classes in the school from the budget allocated to the units in 2025; building internal spending regulations, including regulations on the level of expenses for organizing extra classes to ensure part of the teachers' efforts,” Mr. Cuong shared.

Mr. Le Sy Hieu, Principal of Nhu Xuan Boarding and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, said that previously the school taught 2 sessions/day, in the morning it taught the main subjects, in the afternoon it was for students to review and collect money.

However, implementing Circular 29, the school no longer collects tuition fees, instead teaching Literature, Math, and English for free to grade 9 students so that they can master the knowledge for the 10th grade entrance exam.

According to VietNamNet's investigation, not only schools in Muong Lat and Nhu Xuan districts, but also schools in Quan Hoa, Quan Son, Ba Thuoc, Lang Chanh districts... teachers are also providing free review for students to prepare for the upcoming 10th grade entrance exam.

Previously, the Thanh Hoa Department of Education and Training also instructed schools to focus on improving the quality of regular teaching hours, guiding and supervising students' self-study to achieve efficiency; encouraging students to self-study through software, lecture videos, review websites...

For schools that cannot arrange funding, encourage and motivate teachers to teach additional knowledge, meet the wishes of students (especially students with unsatisfactory academic results) but do not collect money.

Schools adjust their competition criteria, commend and promote examples of groups and individuals who teach and review for free, are devoted to students, and achieve high efficiency in educational work.

Teachers struggle to register their tutoring business . Having lined up twice to register her tutoring business but not getting her turn or being asked to provide additional documents, Ms. Thu Tuyen had to ask a service to do the paperwork to quickly legalize her tutoring business.