Parents park their motorbikes to wait for their children outside a primary school in HCM City. VNA/VNS Photo

by Ray Riches*

With schools back in full operation for the new school year, children of all ages are making the mass daily migration from home to school across the country. This has sparked much discussion about traffic laws and the dangers children face as they mix with crowded streets surrounding schools.

In Thủ Đức Ward, east of HCM City, there is a main road with a 400-metre section that includes a kindergarten, a senior high school and, on the opposite side, a primary school. At 4pm on a school day, this street turns into mass chaos as all three schools finish at the same time.

At about 3.50pm each day, motorbikes driven by parents and grandparents begin filling the street, waiting for the gates to open so they can either park inside the school or wait outside for their children and grandchildren to finish class.

For some reason, road rules seem to be disregarded when it comes to school pick-up. The first thing one notices is the lack of helmets. Many people appear to have the 'it’s OK' mentality if they are only travelling a short distance. Not only do the children go without helmets, but many adults also neglect their own safety.

In many areas, including this one, public roads around schools do not have any official traffic patrols. Instead, traffic control is often left to one or two security guards employed by the school.

With schools accommodating well over 1,000 students – and sometimes more than 3,000 – the situation quickly becomes chaotic when everyone converges on the front gate at the same time, all jostling for a place to meet their children.

Once classes end, children spill out onto the streets. From main roads to highways to back lanes, there is rarely enough space to handle the mass exodus. This is where the real dangers lie.

Young children, lacking awareness of the dangers posed by cars, buses and motorbikes, often dash across roads when they spot a family member, ignoring what is happening around them. Older students are frequently distracted by their phones, catching up on social media or messages they missed during the school day. Together, this creates a perfect storm for accidents, injuries and even fatalities.

From the perspective of other road users, this time of day is a nightmare. On this stretch of road in Thủ Đức, it can take 15 to 20 minutes to travel 400 to 500 metres – a journey that would normally take less than a minute. The resulting delays cause further frustration for commuters simply trying to go about their business.

Recently, the government passed a rule that no school can finish classes before 4pm on a school day. This stems from a broader adjustment issued by the Ministry of Education and Training for the 2025–26 academic year. The key change is a cap of seven lessons per day, which indirectly pushes dismissal times to around 4:00pm to accommodate the full schedule.

I recall that, back in my own school days – long ago – schools planned start and finish times in consultation with bus companies and police. Senior high schools often started earlier and finished at 2.30pm, elementary schools ended around 3pm-3.30pm and public schools from 3pm-4pm.

This system had several benefits. School buses could make multiple runs, parents could collect more than one child because finishing times were staggered, and overall safety was improved as student commutes were spread across a four-hour window in the afternoon.

At least twice a day, in front of many schools, congestion mounts due to the number of motorbikes belonging to parents picking up their children or the ones driven by teenage school pupils. Photo vov.vn

While such a system may not be workable in Việt Nam due to various local factors, planning staggered finishing times in concentrated areas like Thủ Đức could help improve safety.

The stark reality is that around 2,000 children die in traffic accidents in Việt Nam every year. That is five children a day dying needlessly – a rate of 20 deaths per 100,000 children, far higher than the Southeast Asian average of 7.4 per 100,000 (statistics from 2015 to 2019).

With children continuing to lose their lives on the way home from school, even one death is one too many. Education, planning and strict enforcement of safety protocols must be prioritised to ensure the safest possible environment for schoolchildren of all ages.

There are no words to describe the sight of a courtyard filled with 1,000 children standing silently, many in tears, as they remember a classmate or friend killed in a traffic accident on the way home. Having witnessed it firsthand, I can only hope it never happens again. Safety must remain the number one priority for parents, schools and communities to keep our children safe. — VNS

*Ray Riches lives in HCM City and works as a teacher and freelancer. He is also a bicycle rider with experiences across Việt Nam. With more than ten years in HCM City, Ray enjoys sharing his unique experiences of Việt Nam with people all over the world.