From the 2025-2026 school year, organizing 2 teaching sessions/day will officially be mandatory for primary school students nationwide. For junior high school and high school levels, implementation is encouraged according to the roadmap, applied locally to ensure conditions for staff and facilities.
When asked about the expenses to be paid for 2 school-age children, Ms. Viet Nga, a parent with children in grade 5 and grade 9 in Dai Mo ward, Hanoi, calculated that each child would cost about 2-3 million VND, not including boarding meals.
"From the 2025-2026 school year, children will not have to pay tuition fees. This is the amount of money I have to pay when registering my child to participate in talent subjects and afternoon clubs. Tuition fees are calculated by department and primary school students will have to pay extra for extra hours" - Ms. Nga explained.
This parent believes that for families in the city, it is completely necessary to have children study 2 sessions/day because they can play and study at school, be safer, have more useful activities and help parents feel secure at work without having to worry about what their children eat at noon or what they do in the afternoon.
However, to make learning truly effective and reduce the pressure on her children, Ms. Nga expressed her wish: "I propose that the afternoon subjects be to guide students to complete their homework, increase life skills lessons instead of teaching culture and then continue to do tiring homework at night".
According to Lao Dong, 100% of Hanoi primary schools study 2 sessions/day. As for junior high school and high school, studying 2 sessions/day depends on the material conditions of each school.
Ms. Thu Hoai, a parent of a 7th grade student at Chu Van An Secondary School (Tay Ho Ward, Hanoi) informed that her child's school schedule is all day on Monday, every morning of the week from Tuesday to Friday.
"The school prioritizes teaching 2 sessions/day for grade 8 and grade 9. With the school schedule of grade 7, my family takes turns picking up and dropping off our children, or sometimes booking a technology motorbike taxi. Although it is hard, in return, I have more time to rest, study on my own, participate in sports activities or help my grandparents and parents with housework" - Ms. Hoai shared.
Ms. Le Minh Van, a parent with a child studying in grade 3 in Thanh Hoa, shared that with her child's current school schedule, the family has no difficulty picking him up and dropping him off. Outside of class hours, my child will come home late at night to do her homework. In addition, she registered her children to study English at the center for 2 sessions to improve communication skills and language use.
"The schedule at school is from Monday to Friday, with 1 afternoon off a week. Morning school is from 7:10-10, afternoon is from 14:00 - 16:30 afternoon. The school is giving out votes to parents on how to learn life skills for students, expected to study on Saturday morning, priced at about 10,000 VND/class. My family is considering registering for our child" - Ms. Van expressed.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training's instructions on teaching 2 sessions/day, primary school teachers will teach a maximum of 7 sessions/day, each session is 35 minutes. Session 1 teaches the main curriculum according to regulations; Session 2 is for activities of consolidating, supplementing, educating skills, experiences, career guidance, reading culture, financial education, digital capacity, sports, arts, artificial intelligence, learning about local history and culture...
A new highlight is that the Ministry of Education and Training does not strictly regulate morning as a session 1 or afternoon as a session 2; it does not allow the alternation between compulsory lessons and parts according to needs in the same session. The school is flexibly organized according to actual conditions.
