According to the 2024-2025 school year schedule issued by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee at the beginning of the new school year, Ho Chi Minh City students are expected to have Lunar New Year holiday in 2025 from January 25, 2025 to February 2, 2025 (ie December 26 to January 5).
Thus, during the upcoming Lunar New Year, students in Ho Chi Minh City will have 9 days off. In 2024, students in Ho Chi Minh City will have 16 days off.
This makes many families who want to return home for Tet hesitate because they think that a short break will be too much. Therefore, many parents want to adjust the Tet holiday schedule so that students can have a longer break.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Quyen (District 12) said that her paternal and maternal hometowns are in two different provinces, so every year her family usually celebrates Tet at her paternal home and after Tet, they continue to move to her maternal home, staying in each place for 4-5 days.
"Like last year's holiday schedule, our family returned to our hometown on the 27th of Tet and returned to the city on the 9th, but this year if the children go to school on the 6th, the travel will be very busy," said Ms. Quyen.
Similarly, Ms. Le Thanh (Tan Binh District) said: "My husband and I are both from Nghe An, and every year, my family chooses to return to our hometown to celebrate Tet. However, to save on travel costs, my family often chooses to travel by car. Therefore, if this year the children only have 9 days off, my family's plan to return to our hometown to celebrate Tet may have to change because each journey back to our hometown takes 3-4 days," Ms. Thanh expressed.
From there, Ms. Thanh hopes that the Lunar New Year holiday schedule for city students can be adjusted, increasing the number of days off to facilitate people's travel.
Regarding this issue, an official from the HCM City Department of Education and Training said that the reason why the Tet holiday was long in previous years was because the holiday started on Monday, or sometimes the 6th day of Tet fell in the middle of the week, so the Department of Education and Training combined the weekends to extend the holiday, creating conditions for families to enjoy Tet.
However, this year, the 6th day of Tet starts on Monday, so it is difficult to have an extra week off. Moreover, it is difficult to let students go to school in the middle of the week, and knowledge is not complete due to interruptions.
According to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, provinces and cities are allowed to proactively plan the school year, but must ensure 35 weeks (semester I has 18 weeks, semester II has 17 weeks).
The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs submitted to the Prime Minister a plan for a 9-day Tet holiday, from December 26 to January 5 (January 25 to February 2, 2025). This option was selected based on the opinions and synthesis of 16 ministries and sectors. 13/13 ministries and sectors agreed; 3 agencies did not have opinions on the option proposed by the drafting agency.
If this plan is approved by the Prime Minister, on Lunar New Year 2025, officials, civil servants and public employees will have 9 consecutive days off.
