Ho Chi Minh City: Afternoon classes do not end before 4 p.m.

Photo caption — Computer class for primary school students at Tan Thong Primary School, Cu Chi, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Phuong Vy/VNA

Accordingly, for preschools, school opening hours are from 6:30 a.m., pick up children from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., and drop off children from 4:00 p.m. Preschools must have a sufficient number of teachers and staff to ensure absolute safety for children during their time studying and living at school.

For high school, the first period in the morning starts from 7-8am, and the class ends no later than 10:30am; the first period in the afternoon starts from 1pm to 1:30pm, and the afternoon class ends from 4pm to 5pm.

Schools should plan to open their doors to welcome students from 6:30 am; students who arrive late or leave early should not gather in the area in front of the school gate. The time frame arrangement must ensure smooth traffic in front of the gate and around the school during rush hours.

The Department of Education and Training also noted that schools located close to each other, on the same road, need to coordinate to arrange staggered school dismissal times (at least 15 minutes) to reduce traffic congestion in the area.

Units proactively arrange school plans, build flexible and suitable timetables, ensure compliance with prescribed time frames; ensure health for children, students and workers at the unit.

The daily school schedule at schools is one of the issues that parents are concerned about, because it involves taking their children to and from school every day. In recent days, when officially entering the first week of the 2025-2026 school year, parents at some schools in Ho Chi Minh City have expressed their frustration because the school's schedule is not suitable, such as: some schools organize classes on Saturday mornings, while in many afternoons during the week, students only study 2 periods and then go home.

Parents said that students leaving home too early makes it difficult to pick up their children; moreover, students have to study on Saturday mornings, affecting their weekend rest time.

Representatives of some schools said they had difficulty arranging timetables to organize 2 sessions/day to both comply with the new regulations - no more than 7 periods/day (instead of no more than 8 periods/day like last year) and ensure the duration of the main curriculum and the school's curriculum. Some schools had to organize classes on Saturday mornings to meet the requirements.

Regarding this issue, the Department's leader said that the regulation of no more than 7 teaching periods per day applies to the main curriculum; as for school activities and programs, schools can arrange flexibly.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/giao-duc/tp-ho-chi-minh-gio-hoc-buoi-chieu-khong-ket-thuc-truoc-16-gio-20250912135139500.htm