School of Community Service

The announcement of school start and end times by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training for kindergartens and primary schools in the area has made many parents burst into joy, especially those who have to work during office hours.

Students of Dang Tran Con Primary School, Ho Chi Minh City on the first day of school for the 2025-2026 school year. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training issued a document regulating school entry and exit times for students at all levels - Photo: Provided by the school

Because these school start and end times correspond to working hours in offices, businesses...

The school will open at 6:30 to welcome students. The first period in primary, secondary and high schools will start at 7:00 and no later than 8:00. The end of the daily school day will not be before 16:00 and no later than 17:00.

Before the above regulation was issued, some public schools made it difficult for parents by setting the end of school time too early. When students left at 3:00 or 3:30 p.m., other than freelance parents, all parents could do was cry out.

Therefore, the regulations on school start and end times of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City have helped solve the difficult problem of many families: who will pick up the children? Who will look after the children after picking them up..., while parents only get off work at 4:30 or 5:00 p.m.

However, some primary and secondary schools said that the time frame of the department made it difficult for them because each day students can only study a maximum of 7 periods according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training.

Right from the beginning of the school year, the school has arranged a stable timetable, 4 periods in the morning, 3 periods in the afternoon, and school ends at 3:00 or 3:30 p.m. Now that the Department of Education and Training has issued a new regulation, they don't know what they will let students do to get out of school by 4:00 p.m.

It is true that the Department of Education and Training issued regulations a week after the new school year began, which certainly forced schools to adjust their timetables.

Schools can completely overcome this problem with simple technical solutions: extending recess time, increasing lunch break time, setting later morning and afternoon school start times... The problem is whether schools are aware of their obligation to serve the community or not!

Everyone knows that schools cannot be separated from society. Schools must work together with parents to meet the legitimate needs of workers - citizens who are directly creating wealth and potential for the country.

Can society develop sustainably when, even during working hours, many parents are anxious about picking up their children? Can the country become rich and powerful when workers are distracted every day, worrying about picking up and taking care of their children?

Reality has proven that from the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year after 3:00 p.m. (the closing time of many secondary and primary schools in the city), many agencies and units have turned into "reluctant daycare centers".

Because where do parents leave their children when they have to return to work after picking them up? This is not only an inconvenience, but a social paradox - where schools have not fulfilled their mission of serving the community.

Of course, high schools can be considered an exception, because students at this age are already capable of moving around on their own. In places where the majority of students drive to school by themselves, not depending on their parents to pick them up,

The Department of Education and Training should allow high schools to proactively arrange school start and end times appropriately. It should not be applied rigidly like in primary or secondary schools, where students are still heavily dependent on adults.

HOANG HUONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/truong-hoc-phung-su-cong-dong-20250915093617349.htm