Ho Chi Minh City authorities have announced the schedule for the 2021 fall semester of the K-12 system, with middle schools, high schools and other education facilities commencing their new school year on September 1 and ending it within the last three days of May 2022.

They will spend a few days organizing classes and brushing up on knowledge for students before officially implementing the fall semester’s curriculum on September 6, according to the plan.

Assessment for middle school graduation must be done before June 15, 2022, while the citywide contest for gifted high school students, an annual competition featuring tests in subjects such as math, physics, history, and foreign languages, will be held pursuant to the Ministry of Education and Traning’s next instructions.

Meanwhile, elementary school students will go to warm-up classes on September 8 before officially taking the fall semester’s syllabus on Septermber 20 and wrapping it up between May 29-31.

Graduation results for students who have completed the elementary school program must be decided before June 30.

Students in the city will be entitled to a nine-day breakfrom January 29 to February 6, 2022 for the traditional Lunar New Year.

K-12 schools in Ho Chi Minh City have been closed down since May 10 over fear of COVID-19 spread, which forced all classes to be moved to cyber platforms during the past few months.

Online learning will be considered a regular solution for education during the ongoing pandemic, rather than a situational alternative like in the previous school year, said Nguyen Van Hieu, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Traning, during a press meeting on Thursday.

“The plan is to keep classes online until the end of the fall semester, but the district-level education authority can improvise to run in-person classes when needed,” Hieu added.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest coronavirus hotspot at the moment, has recorded 164,524 local COVID-19 cases since the fourth wave hit the country in late April. 

The southern metropolis has undergone weeks of strict social distancing under the prime minister’s Directive No. 16, which requires schools, public transports, and nonessential businesses to be closed, and will continue following those extensive pandemic prevention measures until September 15.

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