Teaching 2 sessions/day in primary school: Difficulties that need to be overcome

(Baonghean) - Teaching 2 sessions/day is considered a solution to improve the quality of comprehensive education at the primary level, avoid the situation of extra teaching and learning, and enhance life skills education for students. In Nghe An, 99% of primary schools currently teach 2 sessions/day, but only 81% of schools teach the full curriculum as prescribed. In reality, there are many difficulties and shortcomings that need to be overcome...

Organizing 2 sessions/day, boarding in primary schools in our province was implemented from the 1995-1996 school year and up to now has "covered" all primary schools in the province and brought positive results. In particular, the most obvious is that it has met the requirements to improve the quality of comprehensive education and the needs of parents to take care of children at noon. In addition, when primary school students study 2 sessions/day, they are not crammed with knowledge in 1 session; in addition to learning knowledge according to the curriculum framework as prescribed by the industry, students also learn additional subjects: Foreign languages, Information Technology, Life skills... Thanks to that, the situation of extra teaching and learning has been partly overcome. On the other hand, with a 2-session/day schedule, boarding students who have lunch break at school will have more time to recover their health, the quality of comprehensive education and life skills education in primary education will be significantly improved, the quality of universal primary education and national standard schools will be maintained and increasingly developed...

Class time of students at Dien Quang Primary School (Dien Chau).

Although the effectiveness has been clearly seen, the teaching of 2 sessions/day for primary school students still has difficulties and shortcomings. In the whole province, there are currently 447 schools teaching 2 sessions/day, but currently only 144 schools organize boarding at noon for students (mainly concentrated in schools in cities, towns, and townships). This causes many difficulties for teachers and students, as well as greatly affects the health of children. Because if children are sent home at noon, it will lead to too much pick-up and drop-off, affecting the children's rest, the schedule is unstable and unscientific, and the children lose interest in studying in the afternoon.

Teacher Nguyen Duc Vy, Principal of Huu Lap Primary School (Ky Son) shared: The school has nearly 300 students but has to be divided into 6 school locations. The school locations are too far apart, the travel conditions are difficult, the students go to school with their parents to work in the fields, so even though the school has organized 2 sessions/day, the school still cannot provide boarding... Unable to keep the children at school, the class rarely has enough students. There are many children who go to school in the morning but return at noon, afraid of the long distance, so they do not come to class in the afternoon. In Ky Son, currently only 21/33 schools have a noon boarding policy for students. But the boarding is only 50%, meaning that for 2 sessions, the children are supported with lunch according to the Ethnic Minority Student Support Project (SEQAP School Quality Assurance Program), the remaining 2 sessions they have to provide for themselves, which is very difficult. The quality of teaching 2 sessions/day is therefore also greatly affected.

In addition, due to the lack of teachers, schools are having to "struggle" to ensure teaching 2 sessions/day. According to the regulations of Circular 35/2006/TTLT- BGD DT-BNV, the teacher quota for primary schools teaching 2 sessions/day is 1.5 teachers/class. However, in our province, in the 2014-2015 school year, the new primary school teacher quota was 1.2 teachers/class (the quota applied to primary schools teaching 1 session/day), the average number of teaching hours of primary school teachers is about 31 periods/week (including 3 periods concurrently as homeroom teachers), an increase of 11 periods compared to the labor quota of teachers according to the regulations of Circular 35/2006, affecting the working time of teachers. To meet the demand, the whole province currently needs 1,583 teachers (mainly teachers of Foreign Languages, Information Technology and other subjects such as Music, Fine Arts, and Physical Education). These are also subjects that are not covered by the State budget, so schools must balance their own revenues and expenditures, leading to difficulties in operating costs.

In fact, according to the report of the Department of Education and Training, currently 99% of primary schools in the area organize 2 sessions/day, but only 81% of schools teach the full curriculum (meaning 35 periods/week), the remaining nearly 20% only meet 30 periods. In the mountainous area, only 2 districts Quy Chau and Con Cuong teach 35 periods/week.

According to Mr. Vo Sy Son, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Quy Hop district: Currently, the standard for primary school teachers in the district is only 1.3 teachers/class. Therefore, only schools in favorable areas that can collect extra tuition fees to pay for contract teachers can teach 2 sessions/day every day of the week. In remote areas, although teachers have tried very hard and voluntarily taught the second session for students without charging, schools can only meet the requirement of 30 periods/week.

The quality of teaching two sessions a day is not uniform, many primary schools are still confused and inadequate. The policy of teaching two sessions a day is to create opportunities for educational activities outside of class hours, collective activities to improve the quality of comprehensive education as well as support and enhance knowledge and skills for students. However, many schools still focus on teaching literacy, life skills education has received attention but the effectiveness is still low; teaching organization has not paid attention to developing students' self-study ability and practical ability; although the quality of foreign language teaching has changed, it still has many limitations.

More difficult is the physical facilities and teaching equipment. Currently, the whole province has more than 500 separate, temporary schools, mainly concentrated in mountainous areas. In the plains, the city still lacks 39 solid classrooms for primary schools, which affects the quality of education, extracurricular activities, and collective activities of students. Some schools in Vinh City that teach 2 sessions a day have to switch to Saturdays due to lack of rooms. Meanwhile, the funding source to maintain 2 sessions/day mainly depends on socialized sources, so schools cannot be proactive and not all schools have this source to pay teachers...

From the 2017-2018 school year, all primary schools will follow the post-2015 textbook innovation program and 100% of schools will have to teach 2 sessions/day (according to the 35-period program). Currently, primary schools are also implementing innovation according to Circular 30, so only teaching 2 sessions/day will create conditions for teachers and students to promote their abilities, develop aptitudes and skills, and reduce the pressure of homework for students.

Mr. Tran The Son, Head of Primary Education Department, Department of Education and Training, affirmed that maintaining and expanding the scale of teaching 2 sessions/day is extremely necessary. The Education sector calls on schools, teachers, parents and students to join hands, unanimously, and step by step overcome difficulties so that the policy of teaching 2 sessions/day can be effectively implemented to improve the quality of comprehensive education, contributing to creating a solid foundation for fundamental and comprehensive innovation of general education in the spirit of Resolution 29 on "Fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training".

Article and photos:My Ha