Normally, Vietnamese public schools receive students back from August 1, before the new school year officially commences on September 5 and ends at the end of May. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a three-month school closure, the 2020 school year would end in mid July.

Vietnamese students are typically given a two-week spring holiday and three-month summer break. However, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, over 22 million students had been on a prolonged spring break following the Lunar New Year holiday in late January. Many schools organized online lessons during the break.

This year's high school graduation examination would commence on August 9, making it more difficult to properly prepare for the new school year, Nguyen Xuan Thanh, head of the Department of Secondary Education under the education ministry, said Tuesday.

As such, the education ministry is considering pushing back the back-to-school date from the usual August 1 to after August 15, Thanh said.

Several parents have also expressed their support for the delay, as that would give students more time to enjoy their summer vacation and better prepare for the new school year.

"Even though my kids didn't have to go to school during the Covid-19 break, they still had to study online, they were unable to travel or play freely, so it didn't count as days off," said Nguyen Thu Lan, mother of two children, one in third grade and the other in seventh, in Hanoi.

If schools close in mid July and reopen on August 1, children will only have a two-week vacation and that would be too short for a school year that lasted for about 10 months, parents said.

Duong Toan, a father in the northern Vinh Phuc Province, also wants his children to have a longer summer vacation. He said he wouldn’t mind them returning to school at the end of August or even September, so that schools would better organize their classes for the new school year.

Several localities have already moved to let students finish this school year early and enjoy a longer summer vacation. The north-central Nghe An Province has hastened its lesson plans, both online and offline, so that students could finish their study programs within June. Several schools in Hanoi have either let their students take their final exams or ended the school year.