VietNamNet Bridge – The pressure put on the students who are going to finish
secondary school and prepare for the high school entrance exams has become
harder than ever.
Entering high school is considered the “watershed” in the students’ lives,
because they need to have the high school diploma at least to find jobs or
continue the education at higher levels.
Obtaining a seat at state owned high schools is the dream of every student,
while studying at the high schools for the gifted is the wish of all good
students.
A working day of a 9th grader
Mai Lan, a 9th grader of LTT Secondary School in Nam Dinh School, has a good
learning capacity as commented by her teacher. Therefore, Lan has decided that
she not only needs to pass the exam to a state owned high school, but to a
famous high school for the gifted – either Le Hong Phong or Tran Hung Dao.
In fact, Lan has been preparing for the secondary school final exam for the last
three years, since the day she entered the secondary school. She gets up early
every morning and goes to bed late at night, spends all of her time on learning
just to obtain a seat at one of the prestigious schools.
It was Saturday. Lan got up at 5 am. Though it was weekend, Lan looked tired
because Saturday was always the hardest working day for Lan.
She had literature, math, English and chemistry lessons at the school. These
were all heavy learning subjects for her, because she has to do a lot of
exercises.
Math and literature are the two compulsory exam subjects. Therefore, the
school’s management board decided to have more math and literature lessons every
week to practice students more carefully to prepare for the high school entrance
exams.
“We have one math lesson every two days, and we have 20-30 exercises after every
lesson,” Lan complained.
The curricular school hours finished at 11 am. Lan had more than 2 hours to have
a rest before she began the afternoon learning shift. From 2 pm to 4 pm, she had
an extra literature lesson, from 4.30 pm to 6.30 pm extra English lesson and
from 7pm to 9.00 pm math lesson.
She had 30 minutes of break between different learning shifts which she spent on
moving from one class to another and “energized” herself with a carton of milk
and small cake prepared by her mother.
After spending 11 hours on lessons, Lan returned home late. After the dinner,
Lan still had to do the home exercises and went to bed at midnight. Lan said
that there would be more home exercises in the next days, when the exams come
nearer.
When asked about the plan for Sunday, Lan simply said that this would be another
working day for her. “Two learning shifts in the morning, and 3 in the
afternoon,” she said.
Passing the exam is a must
Other 9th graders, like Lan, also have very busty learning schedules every day.
“My parents say I have to pass the entrance exams to high school, or I will be
jobless forever,” a friend of Lan said.
“The time for sleeping is my happiest time in the day. However, I have only 4-5
hours to sleep every day,” he complained.
Tien Phong