According to Circular 29, paid tutoring in schools is prohibited. Free tutoring in schools is only organized for certain groups of students, including: Students whose academic results at the end of the previous semester are not satisfactory; students selected by the school to train excellent students and final year students who voluntarily register for exam review according to the school's education plan.

Currently, many schools and teachers are wondering whether they can link with outside centers to organize educational activities such as teaching English or life skills,... in schools.

Answering this question, in an interview with VietNamNet , Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) said that in Decree 24/2021/ND-CP of the Government (regulating management in public preschools and general education institutions) as well as in the Charter of secondary schools, high schools and multi-level schools, all talk about the form of educational activities, in which educational institutions are proactive in coordinating with units to improve educational capacity. That is, schools can coordinate to organize for students to develop skills.

In addition, Circular 29 does not prohibit schools from coordinating to organize educational and capacity development activities for students so that they can apply knowledge and develop themselves.

According to Mr. Thanh, programs and contents of joint activities that do not include additional teaching of the main general education program are completely permitted.

“However, these activities must be carried out in accordance with other legal regulations, in addition to Circular 29. As long as the content of those activities helps students develop their abilities, why don’t we encourage them to have the opportunity to experience them?”, Mr. Thanh said.

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Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Department of Secondary Education (Ministry of Education and Training). Photo: Le Anh Dung.

However, it should be noted that organizing such activities in schools is also using public assets, invested to carry out educational tasks; therefore, schools must comply with the provisions of the law.

Regarding concerns about monitoring joint programs to ensure real quality and not teaching knowledge that violates the main curriculum, Mr. Thanh said that this is also the responsibility of the principal and teachers in the school.

“If you say it is difficult, I do not understand what the principals or teachers of the schools do. Whether the principals or teachers agree to the association or not, they themselves must know whether the association program overlaps the General Education Program or not. We are the ones who work, our main job is teaching, of course we must know and deeply understand the program. Therefore, teachers must know what content is in the program. If any teacher says 'I don't know if this is in or out of the program', we need to review whether the teacher has fulfilled his/her responsibility."

Parents 'lower expectations, increase efforts' as extra teaching and learning disappear

Parents 'lower expectations, increase efforts' as extra teaching and learning disappear

Experts shared with VietNamNet that if parents, students and schools dare to change the way of teaching and learning, placing less emphasis on achievements, students will feel less pressure. From then on, there will be no more scenes of students rushing to extra classes after regular school hours.
'Students all have good and excellent titles, so why worry about going to extra classes?'

'Students all have good and excellent titles, so why worry about going to extra classes?'

Education expert Le Dong Phuong raised a paradox: "Through the year-end reports, the majority of students are classified as good and excellent, and only a very small number of students are considered weak, so why do society and parents have to worry about extra classes and tutoring?"