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Parents fight tooth and nail to get their child into a primary school of choice.

Three months before first-grade enrollment opens for the next batch of bright-eyed youngsters, the more prestigious of the public schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are girding their loins to do battle with parents who will do anything it takes to get their kids accepted.

A child takes an entrance exam for first grade with intensive English classes at Tran Hung Dao Primary School, Ho Chi Minh City.

Normally, which public school a six-year-old goes to depends on where the family lives, as each school has a clearly defined catchment area.

Each school also has its own admission quota and is only allowed to enroll pupils from outside the catchment area if the quota has not been filled.

However, it doesn’t stop parents from trying their hardest and even stooping to trickery to get their kids into another school if the neighborhood school is not to their liking.

“Before every school year, many parents and their friends and acquaintances entreat me to take their children, in fact far more than the school could possibly accommodate,” one principal in Hanoi recently told Thanh Nien Daily.

Ba Dinh District’s education department head Do Vu says that despite every effort, many schools with good reputations have failed to stem the influx of what he calls “wrong” pupils.

In fact, most of them end up having 45 to 50 pupils per class, even though the regulated maximum is 35, says Vu.

This overloading has reportedly forced some schools to rent extra classrooms outside the school grounds.

Phan Thi Thang, headmistress of Thang Long Primary School, says children from outside Thang Long’s catchment area now account for half of her school’s pupils.

She adds that half of the school’s first-grade enrollments are decided by the district authorities, and half by her.

Phan Nam Phuong, headmaster of Kim Lien Primary School in Dong Da District, says that for this school year Kim Lien was allowed to have 10 first-grade classes with some 500 pupils, of whom 200 are from outside.

Pham Xuan Tien, who heads the Primary School Bureau of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, insists that the city is trying to bring down the number of pupils per class as well as the number of classes and outside places at the most sought-after schools.

While primary schools in the capital have been basically left to their own devices, HCMC’s education department has already banned the enrollment of children from outside their catchment areas.

Parents, however, have found a simple way around the new prohibition.

It’s not uncommon, says Hoang Thi Hong Hai, head of Tan Phu District’s education department, for parents in one district to change their child’s registered address to a relative’s or friend’s in an area where the primary schools are deemed to be superior.

“So, when enrollment time comes around [June to July], we have to work with the district authorities to deal with those cases,” she adds.

Over the past few years, some schools in HCMC have beefed up their English, French and Chinese classes for first graders.

This also draws parents to find ways to score a place for their kids, although an entrance exam is still required.

The purpose of the testing, explains Le Ngoc Diep, head of the Primary Education Bureau of the HCMC Department of Education and Training, is to discover which six-year-olds have an aptitude and enthusiasm for foreign languages.

Reported by Bich Thanh – Tue Nguyen

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