Bringing a knife to preschool for your child: Why?

(Baonghean) - Overcrowding in kindergartens leads to many strange and funny stories during the admission season such as: bringing knives to enroll children, "winning" lottery draws, or children who are the third child not having their application accepted...

» Preschools should be established in industrial parks.

» Strange regulation at kindergarten not accepting third child

» Nearly 10,000 kindergarten students in Nghe An are overloaded with learning

"Hot" back to school season

The rare incident occurred at Hung Dung 1 Kindergarten during the enrollment season of the 2016-2017 school year. In mid-August, when the enrollment process had ended for a week, the school received an application for a child to enroll in the 5-year-old class. According to the enrollment regulations, the school is not allowed to accept applications, but because the student has been temporarily residing at the school for more than 6 months, the school leadership accepted the application from the parent and asked to wait for a response.

While the wife was doing paperwork for the child, the husband suddenly went to the principal’s office with two knives. The principal quickly went out to call the police to handle the situation.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Anh - Principal of Hung Dung 1 Kindergarten said that the parents' anger and overreaction stemmed from the school's overloaded situation: "This year, the Department of Education and Training's plan assigned the school a quota of 610 students, but in reality, the school accepted 766 students."

Hung Dung Ward (Vinh City) has 2 kindergartens but the situation of overload often occurs (each class has 10-15 more children than the regulation). The reason is that the school's quota does not meet the needs of parents. In particular, the schools are also under pressure of student numbers when children in the last year of kindergarten transfer from private schools to public schools according to the universalization program for 5-year-old students.

Overcrowded classrooms at Ha Huy Tap Kindergarten (Vinh City)

A similar situation also occurred at Ha Huy Tap 2 Kindergarten (Vinh City) when this school year, although the school only had 21 classes, 5-year-old students occupied 9 classes (an increase of 3 classes compared to the previous school year). Not to mention, every class was in a state of "bubble-like tension" with approximately 48 - 50 students (higher than the regulation of 15 students).

Not only in Vinh City, the pressure also weighs heavily on many other districts and towns. At Do Luong Town Kindergarten, due to the high demand for enrollment, the school's Board of Directors had to organize a numbering and lottery, making enrollment day a nightmare for parents and the school.

Living in Do Luong town, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu has a 3-year-old child but decided to let her child stay at home because she could not get him into school. In Quynh Tan commune, Quynh Luu district, due to the high demand for childcare from the people, the school board had to "close their eyes" and make a rule not to accept children from families with 3 or more children.

Parents who qualified for the lottery were both amused and annoyed when they received the lottery-like tickets: 1- Study at a boarding kindergarten; 2- Study at a remote school in hamlet 10; and 3- See you next year!

Teachers of Quynh Chau Kindergarten (Quynh Luu) are making toys for students at the temporary school at the old commune People's Committee headquarters.

Numbers that give the industry a "headache"

According to the Department of Education and Training, in just 3 years from 2011 to 2013, the number of preschool-age children in the whole province increased from 59,443 children (2011) to 72,975 children (2012) and then 66,623 children (2013), leading to the situation where the number of children per class exceeded the prescribed number, many schools did not meet the requirements on facilities: lack of classrooms, functional rooms; the number of teachers did not meet the prescribed ratio (2 teachers/class).

Statistics from the Department also show that, entering the 2015-2016 school year, the number of children attending preschool increased by 27,668. Of which, the nursery age increased by 361 children, the kindergarten age (3 and 4 years old) increased by 17,620 children and the 5-year-old children increased by 9,687 children. Rapid population growth and slow growth in school size have led to overcrowding in public preschools.

Quynh Chau Kindergarten (Quynh Luu district) has 720 children this school year, an increase of 130 children, equivalent to 4 classes. According to teacher Hoang Thi Thu - Principal of Quynh Chau Kindergarten: In the current conditions, increasing classes and children is very difficult for the school because the school has 22 classes but only 10 classes are studying at the main school, 8 classes are studying at the cultural house in difficult and deprived conditions, students have not been organized for boarding.

Due to the lack of classrooms this school year, the locality had to temporarily use the offices of the commune People's Committee headquarters in a degraded and damaged state. However, due to the increase in the number of children compared to the forecast and the initially approved plan, the repair and upgrading of the committee headquarters into classrooms for children was not completed until close to the opening day.

Quynh Chau Kindergarten classrooms were renovated from the old commune People's Committee headquarters.

In the past 5 years, the non-public school system in the province has begun to develop with 32 non-public kindergartens and more than 100 private childcare groups. Each year, the non-public school system puts into use over 200 classrooms but still cannot meet the needs of parents.

According to the report of the Department of Education and Training, in the 2016-2017 school year, it is forecasted that there will be an increase of 27,000 children in preschool compared to the previous school year. To meet the standards of the Charter of Preschools, the Department calculated that Nghe An still lacks 460 classrooms and 1,700 teachers. The new school year has begun, but these numbers are still hanging in the air with a question mark for the industry and the locality.

(continued)

NPV