Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City are set to crack down on parents who park in the street while waiting to pick up their children from school, and foreign language centers that fail to prevent them from doing so.

The municipal traffic police will fine these parents, instead of giving warnings to them as is done at present, upon formal approval by the city People’s Committee, Tran Thanh Tra, the police chief, said.

The local Department of Education and Training has also threatened to withdraw the license of any language center unable to battle this traffic rule violation by parents.

It is now a common phenomenon in the city that parents sit on bikes or in cars idling at school gates facing the road, waiting for their children and thus causing traffic jams in the immediate vicinity. The fine and closure threat follows an instruction from Nguyen Huu Tin, vice chairman of the committee, that the management of city schools and foreign language centers direct parents into the school yards or parking lots they hire nearby in order to avoid creating blockages at rush hour.  

A lack of parking space for parents at the end of the school day has created major headaches for city schools and language centers, as the majority of them cannot find a bigger campus in this bustling metropolis.

“We cannot let all the parents go inside the campus as our school yard measures a mere 700 square meters while we have almost 1,400 students,” said Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang, principal of Cau Kieu Middle School, located in Phu Nhuan District. Leasing a nearby parking lot is inadvisable since there are none around and, even if there were, these busy parents would be unwilling to park there and walk to the school to pick up their children, Hang added.

Even schools with bigger campuses are afraid to allow parents in because there may be traffic congestion at the entrance and exit.

“Imagine that 1,300 to 1,500 students storm out of their classrooms to meet a similar number of parents rushing in on their bikes and you will see how chaotic it is,” said Ho Thi Tuyet To, principal of Le Quy Don Middle School, situated in District 3.

What matters most now is the parents’ own awareness of the traffic jams they may cause, Tran Khac Huy, a student affairs chief at the city education department, said.

“We will ask city schools to talk to them about this issue,” Huy said.