Hanoi (VNA) – Many parents in Hanoi have forcedtheir children to take on extra classes to revise and prepare for the comingacademic year in spite of the city’s ban on additional schooling in June andJuly.

The parents said that the curriculum was too heavy, requiring extra time forstudents to revise and brush up their skills before starting the new schoolyear. They expressed concern that their children would not be able to catch upwith other classmates after three months off.

As a result, many students have already started their studies without havinghad time off during the summer holiday.

Le Minh Triet, a second grader in Long Bien district’s Thach Ban ward hasstarted extra classes on Vietnamese language and math twice a week, immediatelyafter completing the academic year last month.

Triet’s mother said she was concerned after hearing her colleagues talk about theirchildren’s results, and feared that her son would forget the lessons if he wasaway from school.

Triet was not alone, and his mother was not the only parent with such concerns.

She was able to find an extra class held by a primary teacher at the teacher’shouse.

Le Huong Thao, a parent living on Ba Dinh district’s Nghia Dung street saidthat she was trying to find an extra math class for her son as his grades hadbeen weak.

“I asked the math teacher to let him join the class, but she wouldn’t accept asthe class was already full and had been going for two weeks already,” she said.

“I have also found two more classes on English language and Vietnameseliterature for him.”

Thao said she knew the boy needed time to rest, but insisted that if he didn’tkeep studying, he wouldn’t be able to pass the high-school exams next year.

“I wish the curriculum was less heavy, so my son would have more time forextracurricular activities. He keeps complaining about having no time for hishobbies,” she said.

In 2012, the Ministry of Education and Training issued a ban on extra classesduring summer holidays. After five years of implementation, extra classes arestill an issue.

According to the department’s regulations on organising study activities forstudents during summer, Hanoi’s schools will be allowed to hold revisionclasses after August 1, restricting to students attending the school.Headmasters will be in charge of managing the extra classes, and teachers willnot be allowed to hold classes out of school.

Le Hong Vu, head of Tay Ho district’s Sub-department of Education and Trainingsaid to Ha Noi Moi (New Hanoi) newspaper that only one out of eightsecondary schools in the district had received permission to hold extra classesfor students, and this school has not organised any classes.

 Pham Gia Huu, head of Thanh Xuan district’s Sub-department of Educationand Training said that all 11 schools reported that no classes would be helduntil August, as regulated.

Nguyen Huu Do, Director of the city’s Department of Education and Training saidthat headmasters would take responsibility if their schools were found to haveheld classes before the regulated time (August 1) or forced students to attendclasses.

However, the oversight of extra classes held off school grounds seems to beineffective. A representative of the municipal Department, who wished to remainanonymous, said current regulations stipulated that teachers were not allowed tohold extra classes off school property, but could work at licensed educationalcentres.

Therefore, many teachers chose to work for certain centres and students wouldbe informed about where to register for classes.

He added that the regulation stipulates that teachers were not allowed to teachstudents to avoid negative activity such as giving bad marks if students didnot attend the classes. However, the fact showed that both teachers andstudents wanted to be in the same class as teachers knew the ability ofstudents better than any new teacher.

He said parents played an important role in dealing with the unlicensed extraclasses. Parents should be aware of their children’s abilities to decidewhether they needed extra classes, and send them to classes held by the schoolsinstead of finding classes held by a well-known teacher.

If not, the education sector’s efforts to curb extra classes would be useless,he added.-VNA