Circular 29 takes effect, parents 'frantically' worry about picking up their children early?

TPO - Circular 29 takes effect today (February 14), with many new points that have a strong impact on the education sector, parents, and students. Forced to cut back on extra-curricular hours, primary school students may have to leave school at 3:30 p.m. If they do not participate in cultural or artistic clubs, parents will have to arrange their work to have time to pick up their children early.

TPO - Circular 29 takes effect today (February 14), with many new points that have a strong impact on the education sector, parents, and students. Forced to cut back on extra-curricular hours, primary school students may have to leave school at 3:30 p.m. If they do not participate in cultural or artistic clubs, parents will have to arrange their work to have time to pick up their children early.

With the provisions of Circular 29, if implemented correctly, all schools must stop paying for extra classes. Primary school teachers are also not allowed to “pull” students to centers or open their own extra classes.

At that time, students will only study the correct amount of time according to the program prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training . Specifically, primary schools will teach 2 sessions/day, with no more than 7 periods per day; minimum 32 periods/week and maximum 35 periods/week. In the remaining time, students can participate in recreational activities, cultural and artistic activities, sports, reading, etc.

By cutting extra hours, elementary schools may have to dismiss students at around 3:30 p.m. every day.

The Ministry of Education and Training has also required schools to arrange scientific timetables, ensuring a reasonable ratio between teaching content and appropriate educational activities.

In recent days, the news that cutting extra classes will cause students to leave school early has made parents worried because they will have to arrange a time to pick up and drop off their children while they are still at work, which is very difficult.

Supporting the new regulations on extra teaching and learning, many other parents hope that after school hours, schools will create more play space for students so that they can comfortably play shuttlecock, play soccer or read books in open libraries.

"No need to rush and stress to go to extra classes, every day the children have about 2 more hours to play in the school yard, reading books, isn't that what we have long wanted?", Ms. Thanh Ha, a parent with a 6th grader in Hanoi expressed her opinion.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tung, who has two children studying at primary and secondary school in Thanh Xuan district, said that in the past, his children ate lunch at boarding schools and studied all day at school. After 5 pm, he and his wife took turns picking up their children after work. If the children finished school too early, the family did not know how to arrange things because work did not allow them to leave the office too early.

"In case school ends early, the school has sports clubs, music lessons, drawing lessons... I will let my child participate to increase extracurricular cultural activities while waiting for parents to come and pick him up after work," said Mr. Tung.

The Ministry of Education and Training "bans" extra classes for primary school level.

School ends earlier

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, Principal of Kim Lien Primary School, Dong Da District (Hanoi) said that for a long time, the school has been teaching 2 sessions a day. In addition to the main curriculum of 35 periods/week, the school also arranges 2 additional periods of knowledge enrichment for each subject and is charged 15,000 VND/period according to Decree 03 of the Hanoi People's Committee.

After that, students can participate in life skills education activities, talent clubs, sports, arts, etc. before their parents come to pick them up.

When applying the new circular on extra teaching and learning, schools must cut the paid enrichment classes. Thus, the remaining 35 classes are divided into 5 days a week, each day has 7 classes, of which 4 are in the morning, 3 are in the afternoon and students will finish school at around 3:30 pm.

The regulation stipulates a maximum of 35 periods/week, a minimum of 32 periods/week. Some schools that lack teachers will only arrange the minimum, leading to days when students finish school very early.

Although the school organizes clubs, in reality, it depends on the conditions and needs of each family; some people participate and some do not. Meanwhile, students finishing school early also makes it difficult for parents to pick them up and drop them off.

Regarding solutions, according to Ms. Chi, the school is calculating plans to create the most favorable conditions for parents. For example, arranging for teachers to look after students for more time, but this must have the consent of teachers and parents because it is voluntary.

"The school has to consider because before, there were 2 more periods at school for students to teach, but only for teachers to look after children, not 100% of parents agreed," said Ms. Chi.

The new circular prohibiting extra teaching in primary schools will limit the negative effects of extra teaching and learning for young students. However, there are also disruptions in the organization and arrangement of appropriate educational activities, convenient for students and parents.

In any school, at any age, there will be students with outstanding abilities and students with weaknesses who have difficulty in acquiring knowledge. In these two cases, the school arranges for teachers to spend time outside of class hours to help the good students develop better, and the weak students will also receive additional knowledge.

"However, the school currently does not have the funding to pay for this activity. Therefore, when implementing the new circular, we hope to have support from the state budget to be able to pay for extra teaching fees for teachers outside of working hours, which is also very satisfactory," said the Principal of Kim Lien Primary School.

According to the representative of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, the unit has issued a document instructing schools to strictly implement the provisions of Circular 29 of the Ministry of Education and Training. During the implementation process, if there are any difficulties or problems, please report to the Department. Only through the actual implementation process can we know whether there are any difficulties that need to be resolved or not.

Ha Linh

Source: https://tienphong.vn/thong-tu-29-co-hieu-luc-phu-huynh-cuong-cuong-lo-don-con-som-post1717004.tpo