The enhanced program has been temporarily suspended for review and to gather feedback from parents.
Circular 85 regulates the organization of enhanced education activities and needs-based education activities in general education institutions. Specifically, enhanced education activities organized outside of regular class time, during the two-session-per-day teaching period, must ensure that all students have access to them, and must be free of charge in any form, without imposing any conditions or contributions for participation. Funding must be secured from the institution's regular expenditure budget, shared learning materials, and other legitimate sources; it is not permitted to distribute the fees equally among all students.
Notably, the previously existing enhanced teaching activities in Nghe An are now considered needs-based education activities. Accordingly, the Circular stipulates that this program must be organized outside of regular school hours, based on the voluntary participation of learners, their parents, or guardians.
The issuance of Circular 85 has also impacted the organization of teaching and learning in many schools in Nghe An. At Thanh Vinh 1 Primary School, Thanh Vinh ward (formerly Le Mao Primary School), in previous school years, due to implementing the advanced school model, 100% of the school's students, from grades 2 to 5, with nearly 1,200 students, participated in enhanced programs such as English, English Math, AC3 Informatics, STEM, and extracurricular subjects like physical education and sports .
Following the issuance of Circular 85, Ms. Le Truong Giang, the school principal, stated that the new regulations have created numerous difficulties in organizing classes and scheduling timetables. Therefore, at the recent parent-teacher meeting at the beginning of the school year, the school informed parents to re-register for voluntary programs according to their needs. Currently, due to the unstable number of registered students and some parents changing their preferences, forming classes has become challenging.