Description of Hoa Thuy Tien Kindergarten

Hoa Thuy Tien kindergarten is relatively new. It was established in Feb. 2001. The Kindergarten is located on the outer side of Hanoi. At the moment the Kindergarten has 380 children - they’re divided into 11 classes, in 3 different sections.

There’re Class C (3-4 yrs. Old) Class B (4-5 yrs. Old) and Class A (5-6 yrs. Old). Each class has approximately 35- 40 children, 1 head teacher and 2 other teachers.

The Kindergarten has 33 teachers, 6 staffs in the kitchen, 1 janitor, 1 doctor, 1 vice principal and the pricipal.

The principal has a master degree in “educational management”.
All the teachers have a 3 yrs. long education from College and some of them are still studying at the University during the weekends, which takes another 2 yrs.

Besides the 11 classes, the Kindergarten has a play ground, a gym room (but they mainly use it as an English class room), a music room, a computer room, several libraries (they’re so tiny you can hardly consider it as a library), offices, dining room and a kitchen.

The Kindergarten is placed under the government, who settled the guidelines for the Kindergarten, which the teachers must obey. Although there are guidelines, the Kindergarten works out their own agenda. The government finds a subject, and the Kindergarten decides from there, what to do and how to do it.

The Kindergarten is also under management of National College for education, which it is a part of. This college educates teachers and it is placed right next to the Kindergarten.

The weekly plan contains 7 subjects; such as Vietnamese, maths, psychical skills, music, creativity, personal/social skills and topics that are related to their culture. All those subjects is a part of their daily structure. The teachers chose the main themes of the week, were the children will be taught about the themes/topics, and they combine it with activities so the children get a better knowledge of the topics.

On top of that, they also have 2 other subjects, such as martial art (Kung Fu) and drawing class.

The Kindergarten receives support and money from the government for different things such as materials, furniture, books, the teacher’s salary and basic things like toys.

None of the children bring their own lunch meal to the Kindergarten. The parents pay for the children’s meal, learning fees and some of the teacher’s salary. The payment per month is 20 – 50 U.S $.

Those teachers that have a “teaching contract” receive their payment from the parental payments and the Kindergarten. The other teachers that have a “government contract” get their salary from the government. The parents of the children are from the middle class and upper classes. The majority of them are working in offices, as professors and teachers.

The Kindergarten has had Danish students (plus from Singapore) for the past 3 years – they find our knowledge and ideas very useful, as much as we can learn from them too.

I’m in class A2. At the moment there’re 36 children, a head teacher, two other teachers, a Vietnamese student from college (to become a teacher), and myself as Danish student to become a social worker (working in institutions with pedagogic methods in practise). The other student and I, have a role as a teacher, so the children must give us the same courtesy like the other teachers.

The classroom has 4 functions:

· Teachings/playing

· Dining room

· Dressing room

· Sleeping room

Reflection:

Usually when we think of a Kindergarten, terms like “kids being kids” and “playing” are terms that pop up into our minds. According to the Danish educational system, I would consider class A2, as a year 1 class or year 2 class in a Danish Primary School.

However, here in Vietnam, they’re more focused on the teaching, because they believe, the more knowledge the child has, the more the child will develop. These children are able to get dressed and undressed from top to toe by themselves. They fold their clothes nicely, and don’t roll their clothes together and throw them into some corner. They’re well mannered and are polite when they speak to an elder person. They always greet each teacher the first thing in the morning and before they go home – one by one. They’re helpful towards the other pupils. They manage to eat nicely. I’ve been here for 3-4 weeks now, and I’ve never seen leftovers on their cheeks, fingers or clothes. They’re quite competent comparing to the Danish children ages 5-6 in the Kindergarten.

Although I’m a bit worried about the children’s personal hygiene. Either the children haven’t been taught about bacteria, the awareness of how fast bacteria can spread, or they’re just being lazy. Maybe it’s a combination of both? I’d like to make more observations on that.

Apart from that, I suppose the reason why these children in my class are so competent, is because the entire day is structured with teachings. This has shaped these children into “little students”. It’s all a part of preparing the children to Primary School, which is also why they’re so focused on discipline.

For instance, if a child is behaving badly, he/she gets taking away from the rest of the group. As a punishment, the child has to sit in a corner by oneself with crossed legs, and crossed arms, and reflect on what he/she has done wrong. Furthermore, the child has to apologize to all the teachers and his/her classmates for disturbing the lesson. There’re no tolerance for misbehaved children, and the punishments can sometime seem hard from a Danish perspective, but as the teachers believe it’s part of growing up, as the child should learn the consequences for ones actions.

Another example is, when the children are getting too noisy, the teacher claps on their hands twice “clap clap!”, and the children stops up and say “Be quiet, please!” And then it’s quiet in the entire class. I think it’s quite impressive, that the children obey the teachers so much – The Danish Kindergarten or Primary School could learn a lot from that kind of discipline.