VietNamNet Bridge – There is an implicit rival among parents to find out whose children do better at school. In order to win the race, the parents have to force children to learn as hard as possible.

The daughter of Tran Thu Huyen in district 2 in HCM City goes to a kindergarten nearby, and she would only enter the first grade after the next summer. However, Huyen has told the girl that she needs to prepare well from now for the first grade.

The mother has drawn up a busy timetable for the girl. She has Vietnamese and math private tutoring lessons every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, has English lessons on Friday. Besides, she needs to practice writing every Sunday and Monday.

Lan, an accountant officer, said all of her friends and colleagues can take pride of their children, who are very good at school. Therefore, Lan decided that Lan Anh, the daughter also needs to be as good as the other children.

The girl has been told by the mother that she needs to pass the exams to a star school in district 1. Therefore, she has to practice Vietnamese language and math every day to prepare for the exams which would come the next summer.

Being a fourth grader, but Mai Hoang Tuan has the lessons designed for sixth graders as well.

Mai Van Thang, the father of Tuan, is an architect of Sai Gon Xanh Company, said he puts a high hope on Tuan, the only son, and always asks him to learn hard.

“Tuan now follows the sixth graders’ curriculum in the evening, because he has finished the curriculum for fifth graders already,” Thang said.

“My daughter, or the sister of Tuan, even has to learn harder, because she would attend the high school entrance exams next year,” he added.

Tuan’s and his sister’s private tutoring lessons cost their parents VND5 million every month. However, Thang does not regret the money, because knowledge is “the most valuable asset” of people.

“I would rather sell all of my assets and houses to get money to fund my children’s study,” he said. “My children need to do better at school than others’ children and they need to be outstanding intelligent. We take pride of them.”

Kieu Thi Oanh, 35, whom reporters met in front of the Thang Long tutoring center waiting to pick up the daughter after the lessons, said that the girl always complaints she feels tired of learning too much.

However, Oanh dares not allow the girl to prolong her break time. “All the children at my residential quarter are very good at learning. If my daughter does not learn hard, she would lag behind the other children,” she explained.

Also according to Oanh, her daughter began going to extra classes since the day she entered the first grade. A working day of the girl finishes at 11 pm, when she finishes doing home exercises and goes to bed.

Dinh Thanh Phong, a teacher of the Phuc Tri tutoring center in Tan Binh district, noted that the official curriculums for primary school students are not heavy as complained by many parents. However, students still have to learn hard because their parents want them to learn hard.

Tien Phong