Hoang Van Thu School has 11 12- grade classes, and every class has several students with weak learning capabilities. After some discussion by the school’s management board and teachers, the students with bad learning capability have been gathered in a ‘special class’.

The special class here has 45 students. In the morning, they learn together with other classmates, while in the afternoon, they follow an intensive training course that is designed to help them pass their final exams.

Similar special classes have been opened at many other schools as well, including Doan Ket in Hai Ba Trung District, Tran Hung Dao in Thanh Xuan district and Truong Dinh School.

In late April, right after the Ministry of Education and Training announced the six subjects for high school final exams, 30 students with weak learning capacity of the Hung Dao People Founded School in HCM City started the ‘special training course’ to prepare them for the final exams. Every day, from 7 pm to 9 pm, the students learn with teachers of six subjects right at their school.

After 9 pm, the 30 students continue learning by themselves in four groups. They only return home only if they can show that they have had learned their lessons. Sometimes, the teaching hours last until midnight, one or two o’clock in the morning, and students have to sleep at the school.

Pham Trung Nhan, Headmaster of Hung Dao School said that last year the school had a low percentage of students passing the final exams, 34 percent. Teachers have urged students to work harder this year in order to pass the final exams.

“We have opened the special training course since early April in order to prepare students for the final exams,” he said, adding that though these are extra teaching hours, the school does not collect additional money from students

“We collect 960,000 dong a month in tuition, the lowest level among people founded schools. But some students still do not have money to pay,” he said.

 The headmaster said that most of the students were rejected by other schools and they came to ask for help from Hung Dao School. “We accept all students who ask for seats in the school, because we think that we should give them opportunities”.

Nguyen Phu Can, Deputy Headmaster of the school, said that the teachers who teach at the special class are also ‘special’. They teach students until midnight, and sometimes they have to sleep at school together with students. They feel happy when their students make progress.

The model of ‘special classes’ has been applauded by students’ parents. L.T, a parent on Bach Mai street in Hanoi said that in 2007, her son passed the final exams thanks to the special class, though she could not imagine before that the son would be able to do such a thing.

Source: Saigon tiep thi, Tien phong