The brutal cost of academic pressure

On one side is a new legal milestone: For the first time, "forcing children to study excessively" has been officially labeled as domestic violence.

On the other side are a string of school violence incidents so severe that some children have lost their lives.

A 10th-grade boy at Thanh Hoa College of Agriculture died from a brain hemorrhage after being beaten during recess.

A 12th grader in Quang Binh was fatally stabbed after class.

A girl student in Ho Chi Minh City was assaulted by six classmates in a school restroom.

In Lao Cai, an eighth-grade boy stabbed a classmate and pushed him into a pond.

Decree 282 (effective Dec. 15) marks a turning point by redefining "pressure from love" as a punishable act, with fines of up to VND10 million (around US$380).

Meanwhile, in nearly all of the violent incidents mentioned, the respective schools merely claimed to be "cooperating with authorities" and "investigating."

While this may be the standard protocol, to many parents, it feels more like avoidance or appeasement, prioritizing peace and saving face over sharing the loss and reassurance.

It is not just students attacking each other; even teachers have become victims.

In one case, a seventh grader in Hanoi grabbed his teacher’s hair and slammed her head down.

The school tried to downplay the incident, sparking public backlash for failing to express support for the teacher.

In crisis communication, the public needs more than confirmation; in fact, there are four essential elements: Acknowledging the seriousness of the incident, outlining immediate responses, identifying who is in charge, and committing to a timeline for updates.

When these are missing, the public might feel the issue is being dismissed even if proper procedures are underway.

Why this response? Are schools afraid of damaging their reputation?

This obsession with image not only burdens children but also creates a culture of hiding school violence. The more it is hidden, the clearer it becomes that the system lacks a real solution.

When an institution sees its reputation as the top priority, its language and actions revolve around saving face, like downplaying acts of violence as mere "conflicts."

This is not a mere choice of words but a self-protective reflex in a system that values form over substance.

With Decree 282, the government signals a different intent: Relieve performance pressure so that children can develop more holistically, not let awards and rankings erase the very issues we must confront.

Students sit in a classroom in Ho Chi Minh City for the high school graduation exam in 2025. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

When superficial success outweighs safety and mental health, the system will choose silence over addressing the root cause.

These are not isolated flare-ups.

According to the Minister of Education and Training, in the two years between September 2021 and November 2023 there were 699 cases of school violence nationwide involving over 2,000 students, or one incident for every 50 schools.

We parents do not claim to have all the answers or place full responsibility on schools.

But as a parent I believe every school should commit to two principles: No cover-ups and no abandonment.

"No cover-ups" does not mean revealing everything indiscriminately. It means a transparent, consistent response process that puts student and teacher safety above institutional pride.

"No abandonment" means presence in action: Redesigning resources, rethinking curricula and restructuring workflows at every level so that adults are genuinely there for children.

When schools do not cover things up, parents can see what kind of environment their children are in and how well it is managed.

Showing up starts with placing the right professionals inside schools. Every school needs trained mental health specialists capable of screening, early intervention and parent coordination.

Showing up also means changing how we teach and assess to create more room for social and emotional learning (SEL).

The data is compelling: A review of 213 SEL programs found that participating students improved social-emotional skills and behavior, and boosted academic performance by an average of 11 percentile points compared to control groups.

Where SEL is implemented properly, aggression and conflict decline, reducing the seeds of violence.

But if assessments do not change, all teaching efforts will still be pulled back toward competitive exams.

For primary schools, Circular 27 issued by the education ministry in 2020 already encourages a shift toward progress-based evaluation rather than numerical scores.

This is a critical step in preventing the number 10 (perfect score) from becoming the sole metric of a child’s worth.

Some developed countries have gone further by eliminating major exams in grades one and two, phasing out midterms in elementary and middle school and expanding admission criteria based on diverse strengths and passions to shift focus away from just scores.

No one expects immediate perfection.

In fact, the media in these countries have already pointed out that the pressure may simply shift to year-end exams.

But the decision to confront the truth that academic competition can harm children has created space for other values to grow.

Finally, showing up means knowing how to respond when things go wrong: Prioritize safety and speak with honesty so that parents know what is really happening in schools and what risks there may be.

As long as schools keep hiding the truth out of fear of losing face, nothing will be fixed.

Having the courage to face the truth is the first step, and a key measure of any education system that truly protects its students.

*Theu Trieu is a doctoral candidate in management and economics.