Before Tet, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyen The Dung, Bai Chay ward, had to "register" with their grandparents in their hometown to help look after their 1st grade son, because students in Quang Ninh have Tet holidays longer than students in other provinces and cities by about 1 week, while parents go back to work from the 7th day of Tet.
“My child is still young, staying at home alone is not comfortable, and my parents cannot ask for leave and cannot run home at noon” – Mr. Dung said.
Mr. Dung's family also has grandparents from the countryside to look after them, or some other parents with parents and relatives nearby can send their children, but many other parents struggle quite hard because they do not know where to send them, especially for children who are in kindergarten.
Unable to ask for more leave, some parents hire someone to look after their children from the 7th until the children go back to school. Some parents who are freelancers bring their children with them.
According to the school year time plan issued by the Ministry of Education and Training, localities are allowed to proactively arrange holiday and Tet holiday schedules for students, with the condition of ensuring enough 35 weeks of actual study; semester I ends before January 18 and semester II is completed before May 31. Therefore, the Tet holiday time varies between provinces and cities.
In Ho Chi Minh City, students have a holiday from February 12th to the end of February 22nd, a total of 11 days; many schools flexibly extend it but not more than 2 weeks.
Meanwhile, Quang Ninh is the locality with the longest holiday for students. The Tet holiday schedule for Quang Ninh students is from February 16th to the end of February 28th. But because March 1st is Sunday, Quang Ninh students only have to return to school on March 2nd. Adding 2 weekend days before the holiday, students in this province have a Tet holiday of up to 16 days.
This means that after the 7th of the lunar month, when students in many places have started the first class of Spring, Quang Ninh students still have nearly a week off ahead.
This "mismatch" makes many parents fall into a dilemma. Because also from the 7th, most agencies and businesses have been operating normally, workers have returned to the work cycle at the beginning of the year. Children are still on leave, parents have gone to work, the problem of taking care of and managing children becomes difficult.
Not only public schools close according to the common holiday schedule, but foreign language, mathematics, literature, life skills centers... in the area have also not resumed operations, so parents also have no choice, other than assigning homework to their children to do themselves.
