Should Hai Duong let students have Saturday off?

On September 25, Lai Chau became the second province in the country, after Lao Cai, to officially allow students of all levels to have Saturdays off. This information received much attention from teachers, students and parents nationwide. Not only Lai Chau and Lao Cai, in Ha Tinh City, this school year, 8/9 secondary schools have also piloted allowing students to have Saturdays off. Previously, some schools in Hanoi and Nghe An Province allowed students to have Saturdays off...

Having a Saturday off means that schools must arrange and rearrange their schedules so that students can complete their programs on time according to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Having Saturday off school can bring many benefits to students. Students have more time to rest, recharge their batteries to prepare for the next school week, have more time to play, cultivate knowledge according to their own interests to improve themselves...

According to Circular No. 36/1999/TT-BGDDT dated September 27, 1999 of the Ministry of Education and Training on implementing the 40-hour work week regime for the education and training sector, teachers only work 5 days/week. For teachers who teach on Saturday, the school will arrange another day off during the week. Teachers still have 2 days off/week but not consecutively. If they have Saturday and Sunday off, it will be more convenient for teachers to arrange and schedule family work.

As a parent, I agree if my child has a day off on Saturday. However, this depends on many factors such as whether the facilities meet the requirements and whether there are enough teachers to carry out the lessons.

Through research, it is known that the current facilities and teachers in some places in Hai Duong still do not meet the requirements to be able to study 5 sessions/week. In the 2024-2025 school year, districts, towns and cities have put hundreds of new classrooms into use and repaired and renovated hundreds of others, but many places are still lacking many classrooms such as Thanh Ha lacking 122 classrooms, Thanh Mien 100 classrooms, Kinh Mon town 54 classrooms, Tu Ky 21 classrooms, Binh Giang 9 classrooms... To overcome this situation, schools must arrange, schedule classes or use subject rooms, functional rooms... to ensure enough rooms for students.

In addition, the recruitment, arrangement and placement of enough teachers is also an issue that needs to be raised. According to statistics from the education sector, in the 2022-2023 school year, Hai Duong lacks 3,614 teachers, of which primary schools lack the most with 1,460 teachers, preschools lack 1,165 teachers, secondary schools lack 717 teachers, and the rest are high schools. In 2023, the whole province needs to recruit 1,353 teachers and staff in the education and training sector, but only 708 candidates are admitted. All localities have a lower number of admitted candidates than the recruitment needs. Kim Thanh district recruited 190 people but only 47 were admitted; Cam Giang district had 89 people admitted while the target was 199 people...

According to a survey by the Department of Home Affairs, in 2024, Hai Duong was assigned 28,471 teachers, 27,029 teachers were employed, 1,442 teachers were not used, and the expected recruitment demand was 1,067 teachers.

In addition, organizing 5 sessions/week also requires the opinions of parents and students. Many families worry that parents still have to work on Saturdays and cannot manage their children. There are often situations where teachers organize extra classes on Saturdays even though they do not have regular classes. Instead of having a day off from school or class, students have to go to extra classes.

There are many benefits to taking a day off on Saturdays, but how to apply it needs to be carefully studied and adapted to the reality of each locality. Hai Duong can choose to pilot 1-2 models that meet all the requirements to evaluate, learn from experience, and consider replicating...