Bac Ninh City proposes piloting Saturday off for students at 4 secondary schools

The Department of Education and Training of Bac Ninh City (Bac Ninh Province) has just proposed to the leaders of the City People's Committee to allow a pilot program of teaching 5 days/week and Saturday off at Suoi Hoa, Ninh Xa, Ve An and Nguyen Dang Dao Secondary Schools.

TP Bắc Ninh đề xuất thí điểm dạy học 5 ngày/tuần ở cấp THCS

Bac Ninh City proposes piloting 5-day/week teaching at secondary school level. (Illustration photo: VNE)

Specifically, Suoi Hoa and Ninh Xa Schools will implement from November 4; Nguyen Dang Dao Secondary School will implement from January 20, 2025 (after the provincial excellent student exam).

In the afternoon, schools proactively arrange activities for sports clubs, talents, arts, reading stories, life skills training...

Nguyen Dang Dao Secondary School can propose additional time and location to organize training for the city-level excellent student team of grades 6, 7, and 8 and the excellent student team of grade 9 participating in the provincial excellent student competition.

According to the Department of Education and Training of Bac Ninh City, from the experience of some localities across the country, the department has directed a survey of the needs of managers, teachers, parents and students; at the same time, researched the basis of regulations on building educational plans, programs, and scientific timetables to ensure correct and sufficient official time for grades 6 and 7, which is 29 periods/week, and grades 8 and 9, which is 29.5 periods/week.

Through the survey, 100% of administrators, teachers, students and over 95% of parents agreed and wanted the school to teach 5 days/week and have Saturdays off. All secondary schools have developed educational plans and scientific timetables to meet this need.

The Department of Education and Training of Bac Ninh City found that teaching from Monday to Friday and taking Saturday off is suitable for the living conditions, work schedules and desires of many people.

To make Saturday and Sunday truly days off for teachers and students, the Department of Education and Training issued an official dispatch on rectifying the management of extra teaching and learning activities.

The Department requires principals of secondary schools to do a good job of propaganda, organize teachers to sign a commitment not to organize extra teaching and learning contrary to regulations, and absolutely not to teach extra classes for students in grades 6, 7, and 8 on Saturdays and Sundays.

At the same time, the principal must direct homeroom teachers to coordinate with parents to have a direction for managing students' time during weekends and forming a sense of self-study in students.

According to the new general education program (2018 program), the average number of lessons per week for primary school students is 25-30, and for middle and high school students it is 29-29.5, not including elective subjects.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training's guidelines, if teaching all day, schools are not allowed to teach more than 4 periods in the morning for secondary schools; maximum 3 periods in the afternoon and no more than 6 school days a week. The maximum number of periods a week for secondary school students is 42.

However, many people think that if this is the case, students will have to study on Saturdays, affecting their rest time. Before Bac Ninh, some localities allowed schools to teach 5 days a week with different scales such as Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Tinh City (Ha Tinh province).

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