Teacher 'asks for laptop', socializing education, 'hot' for extra teaching and learning

Many hot issues have attracted public attention in the past year. Looking back at 2024, the education picture has many bright spots and there are still some problems that are being resolved and reasonable solutions are being sought.

The year 2024 is about to end, preparing to enter the new year 2025. Looking back at 2024, education in Ho Chi Minh City has many bright spots.

Positive stories

The good news is that Ho Chi Minh City has officially announced free tuition for secondary school students in the whole city from the 2024-2025 school year, and plans to exempt tuition for preschool children under 5 years old and high school students from the 2025-2026 school year.

In 2024, Ho Chi Minh City will summarize 10 years of implementing Project 5695 - teaching and learning math, science and English integrating the English and Vietnamese programs (with the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City and EMG Education as the accompanying unit), after 10 years, over 30,000 students participated. Ho Chi Minh City's preschool education organized the Preschool Education Festival for the first time with thousands of teachers participating. This level also organized the workshop "Attracting preschool teachers"; organized the first city-level competition for excellent teachers with the theme "Talented teachers" for preschool teachers in independent preschools...

Another issue of concern is that more and more schools in Ho Chi Minh City are spreading the "trend" of banning students from using mobile phones in school, to promote the spirit of connection, movement, and exchange in real life instead of the virtual world of students.

Thanh Loc High School, District 12 - a school without mobile phones, is well received by parents and students. This is a positive trend in education in 2024.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

Regarding the Tet holiday schedule, the story of parents and students complaining that "Ho Chi Minh City has too few Tet holidays this year" has attracted a lot of public attention. The issue that readers have enthusiastically raised is whether to reduce summer holidays and increase Tet holidays for urban students, especially students in Ho Chi Minh City - where the rate of immigrants is high and the need to travel during Tet is very high. Ho Chi Minh City has listened to feedback from public opinion, then increased 2 more Tet holidays, bringing the total number of Tet holidays in 2025 for students to 11 days.

In 2024, many schools in Ho Chi Minh City will have strong changes in listening to parents' voices, publicizing and transparently providing information and quality education to parents. These include Open House activities, open classrooms, open schools, inviting parents to eat with their children, visiting the kitchen, studying with their children... organized.

Looking back at 2024, saying goodbye to the old and welcoming the new

Besides the bright spots, the education story in 2024 in Ho Chi Minh City still has many hot spots of concern. Such as the issue of overcharging, the parent-teacher association collects fees that are not in accordance with the regulations in Circular 55 of the Ministry of Education and Training at some schools in the city. Public opinion has raised the question of whether the parent-teacher association should be abolished to reduce the controversy. In addition, the inclusion of joint programs into regular school hours continues to receive feedback from parents when many schools have not implemented the spirit of "voluntariness".

The case of a teacher 'asking for laptop support' is getting attention in education 2024

At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, the story of a teacher "asking for laptop support" happened in a 4th grade class at a primary school in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, attracting millions of views on Thanh Nien Online , YouTube, and Thanh Nien Newspaper Fanpage platforms. The teacher was disciplined with a warning, and from now until the end of the 2024-2025 school year, she will be transferred to do academic work and will not be allowed to teach.

From the way the teacher understood that asking for a laptop was "socializing education", this particular incident raised the issue of what is true socialization in education, how to socialize education without distorting it. From here, not only District 1 but also a series of districts, Thu Duc City in the whole city issued strict instructions on the transparency of early year revenues, rectifying the activities of the parent-teacher representative board, rectifying the work of mobilizing funding in the education sector to comply with Circular 55 and Circular 16 issued by the Ministry of Education and Training, requiring the principals of any units that are reported by the press to report and review, and if there are any violations, they will be strictly handled.

Many primary school students in Ho Chi Minh City still have to take extra classes every night, even though they already study two sessions a day at school.

The issue of extra teaching and learning has been "hot" for many years when many students, despite having 2 sessions/day, still "diligently" go to extra classes. In fact, recorded in Ho Chi Minh City, primary school students still carry their bags to extra classes every night until they "forget" their family meals... even though Circular No. 17/2012/TT-BGDDT dated May 16, 2012, Article 4 clearly stipulates cases where extra teaching is not allowed, such as students whose schools have organized 2 sessions/day; for primary school students, except for cases of training in arts, sports, and life skills training.

However, in 2024, when the Ministry of Education and Training announced a new draft on extra teaching and learning with many new points, more open than the old circular, in which teachers are allowed to teach their own students, the issue of extra teaching and learning continued to receive attention, attracting a large number of readers on Thanh Nien Newspaper platforms. Many people support the idea that teachers should be allowed to teach extra classes properly because extra classes are a real need. Other opinions still believe that teachers should be banned from teaching extra classes with their own students, thereby avoiding negative aspects in education. In this context, in December 2024, many districts of Ho Chi Minh City continued to issue documents requiring teachers to strictly comply with Circular No. 17/2012/TT-BGDDT on extra teaching and learning, strictly prohibiting extra teaching against regulations.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhin-lai-2024-co-giao-xin-laptop-xa-hoi-hoa-giao-duc-nong-day-them-hoc-them-185241224164714712.htm