An Hoi school in Go Vap district is known as the most populated elementary school in Ho Chi Minh City as it has 4,320 students and 138 staffers including teachers.

There is now an estimated 52 students per class at An Hoi although local education officials say no more than 30 classes should be permitted in a primary school and no more than 35 students per class.

However, there is huge shortage of schools in Tan Binh, Tan Phu, Binh Tan and Go Vap districts where a large community of immigrants are living. Forty percent of the parents of An Hoi’s students are immigrants and most of them earn very little. 

A report by HCMC’s Department of Education and Training shows that An Hoi ranks first among the most crowded primary schools with 93 classes followed by Le Van Tam school in Tan Phu district and Binh Tri 1 school in Binh Tan district with 70 and 80 classes.

Since An Hoi is overloaded by huge enrollment, there is not enough space for all students to gather in the school yard at the same time at some events like the new school year opening ceremony.

In addition, half of the classes have to do physical exercises on odd-numbered days and half do it on even-numbered days.

To avoid traffic jams after school, students of each class have to go home 15 to 30 minutes apart.

An Hoi school was built on an area of 5,000 sq.m in 2002. The school based in Ward 8 receives students from neighboring areas due to the shortage of primary schools in the district. In the academic year 2013-2014, it has an enrollment of nearly 1,000 1^st graders.

Four years ago, the school had 5,100 students and 103 classes – the most crowded-ever primary school in Vietnam by that time.

Dang Thanh Tuan, head of Go Vap’s Department of Education and Training, told Tuoi Tre that late this year some of the students at An Hoi will move to a new school which is under construction.