Morning of September 24, talking with PV AdolescentMr. Tran Hung Quoc, Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Ha Tinh City, said that this unit is piloting a program for secondary school students in the city to have a break from regular school on Saturdays from the 2024-2025 school year. The pilot program for teaching 5 days a week (from Monday to Friday) was implemented by the Department of Education and Training of Ha Tinh City after receiving permission from the Department of Education and Training.
Le Binh Secondary School in Ha Tinh City is piloting a program allowing students to take a day off from school on Saturdays.
“The Saturday school break is to reduce pressure on teachers and students. Currently, out of 9 secondary schools in the city, 8 have implemented this policy. After more than a week of implementation, the decision to let students take a Saturday off from regular school has received high consensus from teachers, parents and students. We also require schools to have a plan to arrange teaching and learning to ensure compliance with regulations, not exceeding 8 periods/day, not to squeeze study hours and not to cut the general curriculum. In particular, we also direct schools to require teachers not to organize extra teaching and learning,” said Mr. Quoc.
According to Mr. Quoc, instead of regular classes on Saturdays, secondary schools in the city can organize activities to foster art, improve physical fitness and life skills or extracurricular activities according to students’ interests.
Ms. Phan Thi Tam Tu, Principal of Le Binh Secondary School (located in Tan Giang Ward, Ha Tinh City), said that the school has piloted allowing students to take a day off from school on Saturdays starting last week and will continue this week.
“Before implementing, the school also consulted with teachers, parents and students, and most of them agreed. The school also arranged teaching to ensure compliance with regulations on the number of periods, teaching programs and planned to spend Saturdays organizing physical education, life skills and extracurricular activities. In addition, we also asked teachers not to teach extra classes at home and hoped that parents would not force their children to take extra classes on the 2 days off at the weekend so that they could have fun,” Ms. Tu informed.
According to Ms. Tu, to ensure the study time according to the current general education program after implementing the regular school break on Saturday, students must have at least 1 day a week to study both sessions. For this, the current facilities of Le Binh Secondary School still ensure teaching and learning.
Previously, the Department of Education and Training of Ha Tinh province issued a document giving opinions on teaching 5 days a week, with Saturday off for secondary school students in Ha Tinh city from the 2024-2025 school year as proposed by the city’s Department of Education and Training.
Accordingly, the Department of Education and Training of Ha Tinh province requested the Department of Education and Training of the city to review, carefully research, and ensure conditions for implementation.
In particular, ensuring the study time according to the regulations of the current general education program and in accordance with reality; developing a scientific and reasonable teaching plan for 2 sessions/day in schools; surveying and collecting opinions from teachers, parents, and students to create consensus…
To effectively implement the policy of allowing students to take a day off from school on Saturdays, first of all, the City Department of Education and Training should organize a pilot to evaluate the results and draw lessons for appropriate implementation.