In principle, summer is the time for teachers to relax and refresh themselves. However, as for many teachers nowadays, summer holiday means working holiday.

 Mai Suong, a teacher of a state owned nursery school in district 1 in HCM City, said that this is for the first time in the last six years she allows herself to stay at home in summer.

 “I do not run any class this summer. I miss my school and my children. I will not get used to sitting at home all the time,” she said.

 In previous summers, Suong still had to go to school, because she had to take care for classes. Parents sent their children to schools even on summer holiday, because they needed to be present at work and they did not have time to take care for the children. Suong also wanted to run the classes for extra income, because the monthly salary alone was not enough to cover her basic needs.

 When asked what they do on summer holiday, most teachers answer that they would spend time on learning informatics, English, reading books, listening to music or traveling with friends or relatives.

 Minh, 24, a literature teacher, said that last summer he had the chance to travel to many places in the country with his friends. With a camera, Minh could take pictures of the beautiful landscapes which could serve as the valuable materials Minh would use in teaching.

 Meanwhile, a nursery school teacher said that she usually does not time to relax, because she needs to draw up lesson plans, make toys or teaching aids to prepare for the new school year.

 Trinh, a teacher of Le Van Sy Primary School, said that she loves summer holiday, because she has more time to take care for her family and does the things she likes, such as reading books, cleaning the house, or planting trees on the terrace. However, Trinh, like most of other teachers, has to return to school in July, when schools open again to receive students to summer classes. Teaching in summer is not a compulsory work for teachers, but they really want to, because they want to earn extra money.

 “We do not have summer holiday”

 In general, students have a whole month of relaxing in June and they will come back to school in July to enter the “summer semester”. Especially, the summer holiday at nursery schools is even shorter, just one or two weeks.

 Therefore, many nursery school teachers say they have “forgotten the feeling about summer holiday”.

 The Ministry of Education and Training allows teachers to have two month summer holiday. It also asks teachers not to force students to go to school, and not to give lessons ahead of time.

 However, most of the schools still organize summer classes, reasoning that the classes can meet the demand from parents. Meanwhile, teachers also run summer classes or writing practice classes at their homes to earn extra money

 The summer holiday of high school teachers seems to be quite different.  Showing a notebook where he writes down the works he needs to do from May to August, Tuan, a literature teacher of a high school in Phu Nhuan District, said that over the last 20 years of working as a teacher, he has never had a summer holiday.

 Tuan said that in general, a school year finishes in May, but he cannot go relaxing. From May 31 to June 4, he has to take the works for the final exams; then he has to mark exam papers.

 After that, he has to take the works for the school entrance exams; then mark exam papers again. In July, he has to work as invigilator at the university entrance exams. He also runs summer classes until August 15, when he begins preparing for the new school year which officially opens on September 5.

 “My friends are jealous of me, saying that I have to work nine months in a year, but I can get salary for the whole year. But in fact, I never have summer holiday,” he said.

 

Vietnamnet/ SGTT