HCM City's secondary school students take photo with their teacher after the school opening ceremony in September 2019. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Schools nationwide will only open for a new academic year on September 5, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has announced. 

In the past, many classrooms opened in the weeks leading up to September 5, but education officials have said that cannot happen when children start this new school year.

The reason classes have started early previously is because teachers were concerned they would not complete the heavy workload within the year.

But new changes to the curriculum have been introduced to lighten the workload.

According to the ministry’s spokesman Trần Quang Nam, MOET is drafting a decision on planning a framework which will be applied in preschool, general education and continuing education institutes. Schools can gather students for orientation activities from September 1. 

The new curriculum will reduce studying time from 37 weeks to 35 weeks. Therefore, schools, especially those in disaster-prone areas, can have two spare weeks to cover the curriculum in case of closure for emergencies, according to Nguyễn Xuân Thành, head of MOET’s Department of Secondary Education. 

“The adjustment is not only applied for the next academic year under impacts of COVID-19 but also for a further period,” said Thành, adding that the MOET was working closely with schools to streamline the curriculum, develop experimental programmes and build different assessment methods. These efforts aim to help each student unleash their potential and improve capabilities. 

Provinces will base on the ministry’s framework to set their own schedules, said Thành. 

Teachers who fail to attend training courses or pass tests on the new educational curriculum will not be assigned to teach first graders in the 2020-21 academic year, according to Thái Văn Tài, head of MOET’s Department of Primary Education. 

Provinces are asked to allocate more teachers than necessary to attend training courses and screen the best ones to be in charge of grade one students in the first year of implementing the new educational curriculum. — VNS