Should ban extra classes?

On a weekend morning, I returned to my hometown and saw my second grade nephew still waking up early to carry his bag for his mother to take him to school.

I was surprised and asked why a second grader had to study on the weekends when he studied all day from Monday to Friday at school, and he studied quite well and learned quickly. My sister said that his whole class went to extra classes, and the teacher was the homeroom teacher...

According to Circular No. 17/2012/TT-BGDDT promulgating regulations on extra teaching and learning, teachers who are receiving salaries from the salary fund of public service units are not allowed to organize extra teaching and learning outside of school. Teaching extra to students who have been organized by the school to teach 2 sessions/day and teaching extra outside of school to the students that they are teaching in the main curriculum are prohibited acts.

The Circular was issued 12 years ago but is still in effect until replaced by another regulation.

It is also good that the children have extra tutoring from their homeroom teacher. But I still wonder if the school curriculum is too heavy, so the students in the class have to go to the homeroom teacher's house to study extra on the weekends and evenings, feeling tired and bored to keep up? Even middle school and high school students are the same. In addition to one main curriculum session, they also go to the teacher's house to study extra for a few sessions at school. Is this kind of extra study really effective? My sister said that if her child doesn't study in the whole class, it is easy to feel lost.

It was the same when we were in high school. Going to the teacher's extra classes was a privilege, we often learned the curriculum ahead of time, and only reviewed it in class. Sometimes, when the test day was near, we were able to review the questions correctly, and our scores were much higher than those who did not go to extra classes. Therefore, when we saw our friends going to extra classes but we did not go, both students and parents were anxious, afraid of being left behind. There were cases where teachers gave difficult homework so that students had to go to extra classes to do it. Many families complained that the cost of extra classes was more than the cost of regular school...

So we can see, no one forces students to take extra classes outside of school, but invisible pressures and fears make students have to take extra classes.

It is not by chance that the Ministry of Education and Training has banned extra teaching for many years. However, the regulation banning extra teaching has been in place for a long time but has not been as effective as expected. Extra teaching and learning are still widespread.

In Hai Duong City, there was a time when the ban on extra tutoring was strictly enforced, but some teachers switched to online tutoring, even renting locations in other localities to maintain, secretly teaching at students' homes...

In recent days, public opinion has been stirred up again about whether teachers should be allowed to teach extra classes properly and legitimately when the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly discussed the draft Law on Teachers.

According to the draft, Article 11 stipulates that teachers are not allowed to "force students to take extra classes in any form". Of course, forcing extra classes must be prohibited. But there are still reasons why students have to go to school if teachers still teach extra classes as mentioned above.

Currently, the salary and allowance regime for teachers has received attention from the Party, the State and localities and is expected to improve. Hai Duong province is also implementing a special policy of monthly support for preschool and primary school teachers.

Thanks to that, teachers' income and living standards have been significantly improved. Current regulations also do not prohibit teachers from teaching extra classes at centers and facilities that comply with regulations.

Therefore, we should not say that teachers have to teach extra classes to make a living. We should also not compare why doctors can examine and treat patients after hours while teachers cannot teach extra classes because few people go to see a doctor if they are not sick, and no one is forced to go to the doctor because they see others going to the doctor...

If the regulation prohibiting extra teaching is passed, there must be sanctions and strict punishment for teachers who violate it during the implementation process.

At that time, students and parents will not have to bear more pressure on their health, intelligence and money because of extra teaching and learning. Regular learning and extra learning in school will also be focused on and of better quality when teachers only focus on their professional duties and follow the program.

If we can do that, students will have a healthier learning environment, fairer competition and more realism.