Due to the influence of storm No. 10 Bualoi, from morning to afternoon on September 30, Hanoi experienced prolonged heavy rain, causing widespread flooding.
During the day, many schools announced that parents could pick up their children early but traffic was disrupted. Many streets are deeply flooded, making pick-up and drop-off extremely difficult, many families have to spend hours bringing their children home.
In that situation, some schools proactively organized dinner for students, stayed at school or coordinated to ask for military vehicles to help bring students home safely. Many parents could not pick up their children due to flooding, so they were forced to leave their children overnight at school.
This disruption has made many parents angry, thinking that the Hanoi Department of Education and Training (DET) responded slowly, was inactive and did not promptly make a decision to let students in the whole city stay home from school early on September 30.
Explaining this, the leader of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training said that the decision to take a large-scale day off needs to be carefully considered.
Surprisingly letting students stay home from school when many families are taking their children to school or they have already gone to class will confuse parents in finding someone to look after them.
Yesterday, it rained heavily at around 8:20 a.m. while from 6am to 8am, most parents took their children to school, he said.
According to the leader of the Department of Education and Training, Hanoi has different areas, not all of which are affected by natural disasters. Some areas and classrooms are still dry and qualified for teaching.
Therefore, not only this time but also during other storms, the department has issued a reminder document, allowing schools to proactively plan or have a form of learning suitable to reality.
In case the whole city is suddenly announced to be closed at a time when many students have gone to school, welcoming them back will also be difficult for parents. Therefore, it would be more reasonable for the school to proactively plan to look after, detain or return students. In fact, many schools took the initiative to let students have an afternoon off yesterday.
The leader of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training also said that on the afternoon of September 30, after working with departments and branches, it was determined that there were many flooded areas that could not be drained the whole day the next day, so the department decided to give students in the whole city a day off to ensure safety. The notice was issued at around 6:30 p.m. so that the families could arrange someone to look after their children the next day.
The Department noted that most schools are cleaning and sanitizing after the water receded so that they can welcome students back tomorrow (October 2).
