Head of the Tan Binh District Division of Education and Training Tran Khac Huy shared that his district has finished all online training sessions for first grade teachers with the help of HCMC University of Education from the beginning of March 2020.
Similarly, Head of the District 12 Division of Education and Training Khuu Manh Hung stated that his district is preparing necessary equipment to launch online training sessions in April 2020 for all first grade teachers instead of traditional workshops due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Deputy Director of HCMC Department of Education and Training Nguyen Van Hieu reported that until now, all senior teachers of the first grade in the city have completed their training. The general training for other teachers is gradually done online to ensure social distance.
After receiving detailed criteria by HCMC People’s Committee to select new textbooks, representatives of primary schools in HCMC said that they have organized online professional discussions via Zalo, Viber for teachers to compare the 5 first grade textbook packs approved and introduced by the Ministry of Education and Training and voiced their own opinions before giving the final decision based on real conditions of the school.
In general, teachers in the city commented that there is no significant difference among the five textbook packs despite various text corpuses.
The initial plan of HCMC Department of Education and Training instructed that all schools had to announce their textbook selection for the 2020-2021 academic year by May 1, 2020. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the plan is delayed until further notice.
Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Thuy, Vice Chairwoman of Thu Duc District People’s Committee, said that the rate of first graders learning 2 sessions per day in her district is only 49 percent, so the goal of letting 100 percent new first graders attend 2 sessions a day seems like a mission impossible. The same case happens to Binh Chanh District where the ratio of classroom over pupil is 182/10,000, which is rather dense.
According to the new curriculum, first grade pupils will learn 5 days a week and 7 periods per day, divided into 2 sessions of morning and afternoon. Therefore, HCMC will try to build more primary schools, increase the number of students in each class, or allow schools to teach 6 days per week to fulfill this goal.
In addition, the city is launching the project ‘Ensuring educational facilities for kindergarten and general education in the period of 2017-2025’. This project focuses on investing in more infrastructure and educational equipment for the new general curriculum. it also checks the current need of the teaching staff to timely assign new teachers to any areas and subjects in need.
Particularly, the Ministry of Education and Training is suggested to issue a formal document allowing teachers of the two subjects of English language and informatics to become full-time staff in order to ensure the teaching quality in the new general education curriculum.
