Teachers and students are struggling to find places for extra tutoring and supplementary classes.

We hope for the understanding of parents and students.

“Before Tet (Lunar New Year), in addition to extra classes at school, I also attended 12 extra classes outside of school for three subjects: Math, Literature, and English. However, since Tet, two classes have temporarily stopped offering extra classes, and I haven't found a new class yet,” shared student Vo Thi Yen Binh, class 9A1, Nghi Kim Secondary School (Vinh City).

Yen Binh is a top student in Literature at the city level, and she has set two goals for the upcoming 10th grade entrance exam: to get into a specialized high school and to be accepted into her first-choice school, Huynh Thuc Khang High School.

To prepare for this exam, I've been registering with two teachers for each subject (both foundational and specialized subjects), including my regular school teachers. Following Circular 29, which stipulates that "teachers currently teaching at schools are not allowed to provide extra tutoring outside of school for a fee," these teachers have temporarily suspended their tutoring activities. This sudden suspension has caused difficulties for Yen Binh and many other students, as they have many important exams ahead.

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Stopping extra classes both inside and outside of school at the same time has left us feeling very confused and unable to find a suitable alternative teacher. Personally, I still prefer learning with my school teacher because she teaches closely with the curriculum and is suited to my abilities.

Student Vo Thi Yen Binh - class 9A1, Nghi Kim Secondary School (Vinh City)

A message containing the phrase "we hope parents and students understand" was also sent by the homeroom teacher to the parents and students of a 12th-grade class at Huynh Thuc Khang High School, citing the reason that "teachers are not allowed to give extra tutoring to students they teach in regular classes at school."

Through the message, the teacher also stated that he was carrying out the task.Circular 29The teacher has contracted with an educational center in the city to ensure the facilities are in place and to handle the administrative procedures. However, this class is only taught to a select group of students, and the teacher will not teach students he is currently supervising or teaching in his regular classes.

Ms. Ngoc Huong, whose child is studying in the class, said: "Although the teacher promised parents that he would provide make-up lessons at a suitable time for students to prepare for the end-of-term and graduation exams, we cannot feel at ease. I regret that my child will no longer be taught by him, even though he studied with us for almost 3 years. He was very dedicated, responsible, and contributed to raising the quality of the class's performance, placing it among the top students in the school."

Due to the sudden suspension of extra classes, parents in the class are currently unsure how to cope with the approaching 2025 High School Graduation Exam. Meanwhile, the homeroom teacher's subject is the main subject and the subject used for university entrance exams by the vast majority of students in the class.

Teachers scramble to find places to give extra lessons.

To date, Nghe An province still lacks guidelines on supplementary teaching and learning inside and outside of schools. This is causing difficulties for many teachers when organizing extra classes outside of school, even though this is perfectly permissible.

An English teacher in a mountainous district said: "In cities or central areas, parents have many choices, and students can learn from teachers both inside and outside the school. However, in rural areas, most students have traditionally learned from teachers at school, and if we ban it, they will have no other options. We ourselves would very much like to teach them, but we are currently facing difficulties in organizing it due to Circular 29."

This situation is also occurring in many other localities. According to Mr. Chu Tuan Anh, Deputy Head of the Finance and Planning Department of the Vinh City People's Committee, the registration process for tutoring businesses is carried out according to Circular No. 02/2023/TT-BKHĐT in the form of household business registration, and the city will process applications if they comply with the prescribed procedures. However, statistics show that to date, only about 7 applications for tutoring business registration have been received, and the applicants are all retired teachers, some possibly parents or other family members.

Besides registering their own businesses, some well-known teachers in Vinh City said they received numerous invitations from newly established centers to organize tutoring centers where teachers could participate in teaching.

In addition, many other teachers have contacted tutoring centers directly to rent teaching spaces, and the centers will handle any other legal procedures on behalf of the teachers. However, upon further investigation, despite contacting these centers, the current supply is very limited due to the limited facilities of the centers, and they have all been fully booked for a long time.

Previously, investigations at the Department of Education and Training revealed that although tutoring directly involves students, it has long been an unregulated business activity. Therefore, besides business registration as required by regulations, quality control at tutoring centers is largely neglected. Consequently, inspection and supervision face significant difficulties.

Given these difficulties, the issuance of Circular 29 with some specific principles is expected to provide a legal framework to help strengthen the management of extracurricular tutoring outside of school. According to the regulations, when organizing extracurricular tutoring, teachers are not allowed to reduce the content of the school's educational plan to include it in the tutoring sessions; nor should it affect the implementation of the school's educational program or the teachers' own subject curriculum.