Relocated parking lots and better traffic awareness among pupils have been proposed as solutions to school hour traffic chaos.

 Traffic jams at school gate

A forum held by Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) on April 5 discussed the problems with educators from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

Tran Thi Kim Thanh, Deputy Director of the HCM City Education and Training Department (DoET) said that the city had changed school opening hours as far back as 2006. The schools were allowed to set the most suitable time frame for themselves. She said they aimed to reduce 98% of school traffic to a period of less than 30 minutes.

"We discussed with the Traffic Safety Committee to provide funding to the schools to relocate their entrances, providing better space for vehicles that are collecting children. We also co-operated with other units such as the police and youth volunteers to reduce traffic jams around schools." Thanh said.

In Hanoi, the change in school hours has been implemented to ease the congestion.

However Nguyen Thanh Huyen, Director of Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem District's DoET said the district only had an area of 5.3 square kilometres hosting 30,000 students. In addition, most of primary and secondary school students were picked up by their parents which add to the traffic.

She said, "Within a few hundreds of metres of Nha Chung Street, there are three primary schools, one nursery school and one secondary school. Moreover, the authorities allow too many bus stops and parking lots near schools in the district."

The educators also exchanged experiences on timetable adjustments for schools that operate on the same street, student movements between shifts, and better school services.

However, they agreed that the decrease in parking lots and student awareness of traffic laws were key solutions to the problem.

At the meeting, Ngu Duy Anh, Director of the Students' Affairs Department under the MoET said over 30 deaths and dozens of injuries each day were caused by road accidents. One of the main reasons for such high figures was low traffic awareness among students.