After a week of applying new working hours to state office workers, commercial operations and students in 12 districts in Hanoi, traffic in the capital city has partly been improved during rush hours but many students say they are tired because of the new schedule.
During the past several days, the overall traffic has run more smoothly in the morning but still become congested in the evening, VTC News reported.
From 6 am to 8 am in the last several days, congestion almost did not occur on many streets, such as Truong Chinh, Ton That Tung, Chua Boc, Tay Son, Nguyen Luong Bang, Lang, Thai Ha and Lang Ha. After that, congestion happened only in some major routes.
However, traffic jams were reported in a number of streets in the evening. For example, although congestion is no longer seen on Truong Chinh Street in the morning, it has occurred in the evening, even more seriously than before the new working hours were introduced, according to traffic police officers on duty there.
A local resident said, “Before the working hours were changed, this street was crowded from 5:30 to 6:30 pm, but since new working hours were applied, the congestion lasted until 8 pm.
Previously, many people picked up their children on their way home, but now that the school closing time has been prolonged until 7 pm, they choose to return home to prepare dinner before heading out again to their children’s schools.
.jpg)
The traffic reduces sharply at the intersection of Nguyen Chi Thanh - Kim Ma Street in morning time (Photo|: Tuoi Tre)
Nguyen Xuan Tan, deputy director of the Hanoi Transport Department, was quoted by VTC News as saying, “In my opinion, changing the working hours is just one of the measures to ease the congestion, but it cannot make traffic jams disappear.”
Meanwhile, students from preschools to high schools have found it hard to adapt to their new school hours. Under the new schedule, they begin to study at 7 am and leave their schools at 7 pm, which has tired out both the students and teachers.
Many students said they could not have enough time for breakfast before going to school, while many others said they were very hungry when they left schools 90 minutes later than they did previously.
From 5:30 pm to 7 pm, in many classes in some schools, like Viet Duc High School, students studied in various moods. Some ate food right in class, some slept at their desks while others looked sleepy. Meanwhile, their teachers failed to engage them in the lesson because they, too, were tired and discouraged, Dan Tri newswire reported.
University students, by contrast, seem little affected as most of them are studying on a credit basis, which enables them to register for a class and arrange their study timetables that fit them most. Many universities also said their current schooling time matches the city’s new working time schedule.
.jpg)
Many students have found it hard to adapt to their new school hours
Yesterday the Hanoi People’s Committee had a meeting with the departments of Education and Training, Transport, and Police to review the impact of the new working hour policy during the past week.
At the press conference given by the Transport Ministry on the same day, Minister Le Manh Hung said, “Some of the students and teachers said they could adapt to the new scheme, while some others said they did not like to get home late… There have also been other opinions that differed.
“However, a week’ time was not enough to assess the effectiveness of the adjustment to office and studying hours. After Tet, students at many schools have yet to go back to school again. So when all the students returned, we will have a more exact and comprehensive assessment of the effectiveness of the adjustment.”
.jpg)