While the new online school enrollment system for the 2016 academic year is expected to help ease pressure on parents and students in Hà Nội, it also exposes obstacles.– Photo caodangduochanoi.vn

HÀ NỘI – While the new online school enrollment system for the 2016 academic year is expected to help ease pressure on parents and students in Hà Nội, it also exposes obstacles.

Nguyễn Kim Chi, a Hanoian, said she had succeeded in registering her daughter at Mai Động Primary School at Hoàng Mai District in just 10 minutes.

“Online enrollment proves to be simple, convenient. It helps save time and hardship for parents in comparison with going to the school for registration, especially on rainy days like today,” Chi told Hà Nội Mới (New Ha Noi) newspaper.

Many parents in the Hà Đông, Cầu Giấy, Đống Đa, Hoàn Kiếm districts completed registration on the designated dates – from June 16-19, according to a Việt Nam News Agency reporter.

However, some parents complained that they failed to register due to network congestion. Many had to try many times until succeeding.

Lại Phú Kiên, a Hanoian, said he could not complete the registration after spending half a day on it. He blamed the fact that too many people accessed the network at the same time on the first day of online enrollment.

Nguyễn Thị Hồng Hạnh who registered her child for first grade at Hoàng Hoa Thám Primary school in Ba Đình District, said although registration can be done online, parents still have to bring original documents to the schools.

Hạnh said she would go to school on enrollment day - July 1 - for registration because she lives nearby.

Meanwhile, many parents are still uneasy about the change.

Nguyễn Trọng Thủy, who lives on the city’s Thụy Khuê Street, said if parents went to schools to register their kids, they would know immediately whether the registration had been accepted. But with the new system, they  have to wait until all the procedures are done.

Đinh Thùy Dương, principal of Thanh Xuân Trung Primary School, said a lot of parents went to schools to get further information even though they got an enrollment code along with instructions.

Parents who are computer literate will have an advantage over those who aren’t, she added.

Some parents also fear that failure to register online would harm their childrens’ prospects of being accepted.

In response to parents’ complaints about mistakes in student information on the new system, Ngô Văn Chất, head of Hà Nội Education Department’s Examination Quality Management Unit, said parents should register normally in accordance with the code provided. All the mistakes will be corrected after enrollment, he said. -- VNS