Lately, the living conditions in Vietnam have been improved significantly, so parents always desire their children to have an efficient education background. Tran et al (2005) found that accomplishment through learning is considered as a desirable aspiration of every parent on their children and this important element is the reason why parents have to find some extra classes for their children. According to an article on Vietnamnet (2014), another reason why students have to take extra classes is that their parents do not want them to fall behind their classmates. Extra class does have positive influences on primary students such as simplifying their learning progress, stimulating them and boosting their learning ability (Tran et al, 2005); however, it also bring some negative effects on primary students. The extra classes overload on primary students has become a concerning issue recently. To illustrate this, this paper will take a closer look on the negative effects of extra classes on primary students’ biological, cognitive and socioemotional …show more content…
According to Dan (as cited in Tran et al, 2005), excessive extra classes can be the reason of stress in children, which negatively affect their physical and mental process. Some education specialists emphasized that the unbalance between studying and outdoor activities causes negative effects on both physical and mental health of children (Le, 2014). After finishing the official classes at school at around 4:00 to 4:30PM, the primary students are picked up then taken to the extra classes which usually last about two to four hours. Getting home from these extra classes, these students also face with many kinds of homework at school, so sometimes they have to stay up late to complete these homework, which causes their lack of sleep. Unless the child gets enough sleep, he or she will not have enough energy to concentrate on the lessons on the next day and gradually, this can be harmful for their health. According to National Sleep Foundation, school age children from 6 to 13 years old need to sleep for nine to eleven hours per day. Too much extra classes harmfully affect not only the students’ physical health, but also their mental health. Nowadays, students can be easily stressful due to their rigorous schedule of the official classes and extra classes. According to John Sweller’s intrinsic cognitive load theory, learner’s information progress can be restricted if the knowledge is