Parents in Hanoi are forcing their 5-year-old children to cram for admission tests on a wide range of areas in hopes they can secure a seat in the first grade at high-quality private elementary schools.

Kids are enrolled in cram classes and private tutoring courses, in addition to evening home training under the supervision of their parents in preparation for exams set by many schools in May on logic, IQ, English, numerical ability, language command, and story-telling skills.

Quynh Anh, a mother, has taken her daughter to the cram sessions at Doan Thi Diem Elementary School in Tu Liem District every Saturday since March.

The kid is trained on logical reasoning, English, and how to tell stories from given pictures in order to prepare for similar tasks she will be required to do when seeking admission at the school next month.

To make sure she will make it, Anh sends her child to private tutoring at a teacher’s house for math training as well.

Thuy, another mother, decided to place her daughter in a Doan Thi Diem cram course after the child failed an entrance exam at another school, Nguyen Sieu Elementary School in Cau Giay District, earlier this month.

“She told me the exam was rather challenging,” Thuy said. “Although I closely worked with her for months to prepare for it, she must have been too nervous.” 

The mother now hires a female teacher to provide further training to her daughter alongside the cram course and says that her kid will take the exam once more at Nguyen Sieu.

Similarly Tuyet and Hanh, a couple, have already registered for their child to seek admission again to Nguyen Sieu after he did not make it in his first attempt.

“We don’t want him to be obsessed with failure,” they explained.   

There have been parents who forced their children to sit for admission tests at five different schools to increase their pass likelihood, a school principal said.

“Last year one candidate had to run from school to school to take exams as they were set very close to each other,” she pointed out.

“Parents are putting a lot of pressure on their kids,” Nguyen Thi Hien, principal of Doan Thi Diem Elementary School, said.