"If all students are already performing well, why the fuss about extra lessons? This is a paradox that I cannot explain. If the evaluation results truly reflect their capabilities, I would think only bad students need extra tutoring," said Le Dong Phuong, former staff of the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences.

"On social media, many teachers complain that if they are not allowed to give extra lessons, their income will decrease. However, they should reconsider whether their students really need extra lessons if students are already performing well. Parents should also think whether their children need private tutoring if they are doing well in school already,” he said.

Vietnamese often compare themselves with others, and they use the achievements in education as a ruler that measures someone’s success. Therefore, everyone thinks that they need to become better and better every day.

The mindset of gaining bigger and bigger achievements, or the "achievement disease" as called by some experts, has deeply penetrated the Vietnamese educational philosophy. Extra tutoring, therefore, has become a hot topic.

Bad students are always urged to become good students, while good students are told to become excellent. And in order to become better, students have to attend extra classes. To prepare for exams, they also need to attend extra preparation classes. Thus, extra tutoring has become coupled with academic results and achievements, according to Phuong.

She said that the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has recognized the problem of "false achievements" and the contribution of extra classes to these false achievements.

Meanwhile, many teachers deliberately withhold all necessary curricular knowledge during official lessons, and provide the knowledge at their extra classes. This means that students need to attend extra classes run by their teachers to be able to receive all necessary knowledge. 

Consequently, students who do not attend these sessions, for various reasons, cannot gain the best results.

According to Phuong, extra tutoring should only cater to students who truly need it, while students who perform well in school don’t need private tutoring. 

The fact that the public and society is "obsessed" with extra tutoring shows misunderstanding in education, as people do not understand exactly what they are striving for when going to extra classes.

"Many people just think that they need to go to school and advance to higher levels, striving to learn as much as possible, without understanding what benefits this knowledge will bring to future generations," Phuong said.

He said that people need to think about "learning to achieve what" before changing attitudes. 

"As for teachers, mentioning their low income to run extra classes is not legitimate. Teachers should first think about their responsibilities and duties. They are tasked with providing knowledge and helping students understand all the knowledge of curricula. If they find the pay and rewards are not satisfactory, they should seek other jobs,” he said.

“It is unfair to require society to consider teaching as a noble profession, when teachers do things that are not noble just because they don’t have much money,” he commented.

Furthermore, Phuong said, education management agencies need to recalibrate the workload for those working in education. Teachers are burdened nowadays and have to do many unnamed tasks, not just purely teaching in the classroom.

MOET’s Circular 29 on extra teaching and learning management has caught the special attention from the public since its release. Under the circular, extra teaching in school is prohibited. 

Teachers can provide extra lessons to poorly performing students to improve their achievements, and to excellent students to prepare them for competitions for excellent students. However, in these cases, they are not allowed to collect fees. Those who want to give private tutoring outside school must make a business registration.

The circular was not welcomed by many teachers who will lose their income from extra classes, or by many parents who believe that extra classes is better for them and their children.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong has stated that the education ministry strives for schools without extra tutoring.  Instead of attending extra classes, students should spend on extracurricular activities, sports, art and music performance to have diverse knowledge. Students need to develop character, their lifestyle, sense of responsibility, and social integration, which can enhance their problem-solving skills.

Thanh Hung