The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has released a list of four bans that primary schools must follow in an effort to ease the workload on students.

There will be no home exercises for students who have two study sessions a day and no competitions to select excellent primary school students. And there will be no selected team of excellent students to participate in exchange activities and academic activities, and no entrance exams for secondary schools (to select sixth graders).

Pham Thi Yen, headmaster of the Thang Cong B Primary School in Ha Noi, said she agreed that it was necessary to ease the current heavy workload on students.

She said that the “no home exercise” principle has been applied at her school for many years.

“The students from the first to third grades don’t have to do home exercises. Fourth and fifth graders are requested to review the lessons and prepare well for the next days,” she said.

Yen also thinks there is no need to organize competitions for primary school students, saying that rivalry will put small children under pressure.

Pham Thuy Ha, headmaster of the Nguyen Van Troi Primary School in HCM City, said the ban was a reasonable decision to help ease homework load for primary school students.

However, Ha thinks that while the contests for excellent students should be removed, it is still necessary to organize knowledge exchange events where students can learn from each other.

A teacher of English was pleased to hear that there will be no English competition for primary school students.

“I am tired of the English competitions,” she said. “This is not because I have to spend too much time to prepare my students for the competitions, but because I always feel too much pressure.”

Parents have also agreed with MOET’s latest decision. Huong Giang, a parent in Hoan Kiem District in Ha Noi, noted that exercises need to be fulfilled at school, not at home.

Giang said she was sad that her daughter did not have time to read the books she buys for her.

“My daughter can only read them on summer holiday, because she is too busy on ordinary days,” she explained.

Giang said she did not believe that students would become lazier once they have fewer obligations.

“There are numerous things my daughter can do after school hours if she does not have to do home exercises,” she said. “I want my daughter to grow up physically and mentally healthy. I am not trying to turn her into a talent.”