It is necessary to adjust school names when removing districts, towns and townships.

Abolishing administrative units of towns, districts and cities: school name problems

Currently, most schools in Quang Tri province use local names or famous people's names, such as "Dong Thanh Primary School", "Tran Hung Dao Secondary School", "Vinh Linh High School", "Chu Van An High School", etc. These schools are not affected when the administrative units of districts, towns and townships are removed. However, there are still some schools whose names include the phrases "town", "town", "ward", such as "Ai Tu Town Kindergarten", "Ward 4 Primary School", "Gio Linh Town Secondary School", "Quang Tri Town High School" which will no longer be appropriate and need to be renamed.

Solution to adjust field name

With the spirit of urgently implementing the arrangement and streamlining of the apparatus "running and lining up at the same time", the Department of Education and Training needs to proactively review the names of alleducational institutions. If any unit name is no longer suitable, propose to the District People's Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to adjust the new name to ensure science, history, and convenience for long-term management and digitalization.

For kindergartens, primary schools and secondary schools, the Department of Education and Training reviewed and proposed to remove the words “town” and “ward” from the school name or to use the name of a place. For example, “Ai Tu Town Kindergarten” will become “Ai Tu Kindergarten”, “Gio Linh Town Secondary School” will become “Gio Linh Secondary School”; or to use the name of a famous person, as recently the People’s Committee of Hai Lang district decided to name the school “Hai Lang Town Primary and Secondary School” as “Bui Duc Tai Primary and Secondary School”.

For affiliated units, most of them are completely appropriate to name their schools after localities or famous people. However, in our opinion, there are currently 3 educational institutions with inappropriate names, which are: "Provincial Center for Continuing Education, Information Technology and Foreign Languages", "Provincial School for Disabled Children" and "Quang Tri Town High School". Therefore, the Department of Education and Training proactively reviewed and consulted with managers and scientists to name these 3 institutions.

As for “Quang Tri Town High School”, a school with a history of 50 years of construction and development (1975 – 2025), many historical and traditional factors need to be considered when naming. According to experts, there are 3 options for naming this school. Option 1, remove the phrase “town” and change it to “Quang Tri High School”, this name is the same as the new province’s name so it is not allowed. Option 2, replace the phrase “town” with “Citadel” to become “Quang Tri Ancient Citadel High School”, this name is the name of a special historical site so it cannot be used as a school name. And option 3, rename it “Nguyen Hoang High School”, as suggested by the late Professor Phan Huy Le, former President of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, in 2013.

Quang Tri Town High School was built on the campus of Nguyen Hoang High School during the period 1957 - 1972. Photo: Document

Scientific basis for naming Nguyen Hoang for Quang Tri town high school

The naming of “Nguyen Hoang High School” for “Quang Tri Town High School” is based on the following scientific and practical arguments.

Firstly, according to historical documents, Nguyen Hoang was born on August 28, 1525 in Thanh Hoa, and was the first Lord, since 1558, to take Quang Tri land to start his career of expanding and developing in Dang Trong. The conclusion of Professor Phan Huy Le, at the scientific conference "Quang Tri - the starting land of Lord Nguyen Hoang" co-organized by the People's Committee of Quang Tri province and the Vietnam Historical Science Association in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri on September 25, 2013, affirmed: Nguyen Hoang turned Thuan Hoa land, Quang Nam into the foundation for his entire career; On that basis, he promoted development in all aspects so that Dang Trong quickly developed not inferior to Dang Ngoai; The greatest achievement of the Nguyen Lords, first and foremost Lord Nguyen Hoang, was the career of expanding the territory to the South. Although Nguyen Hoang only opened to Phu Yen, this was a very important first step for the Nguyen lords to continue, and by 1757, he basically completed this work, creating a complete Dai Viet national territory as it is today, Vietnam. This achievement is extremely great. Professor Phan Huy Le suggested: Propagating education to the people, especially the young generation. Using the name Nguyen Hoang and some figures of the Nguyen Dynasty, those who had the merit of opening the country, to name schools and streets. As for the name Nguyen Hoang school, it should be given back to the school in Quang Tri town.

Second, to honor Lord Nguyen Hoang, on June 20, 2018, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism issued Decision No. 2328/QD-BVHTTDL on ranking national relics for historical relics of locations related to Lord Nguyen's Palace (1558 - 1626) in Trieu Ai commune, Trieu Giang commune, Ai Tu town, Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province. On July 17, 2019, the People's Committee of Quang Tri province issued Decision No. 1812/QD-UBND on promulgating the List of data on place names and famous people to name and rename streets, roads and public works in Quang Tri province, in which, in the list of typical famous people, number 158, there is the name of famous person Nguyen Hoang, with the following general comments: "The first lord to establish the Nguyen dynasty, with the capital in Ai Tu - Tra Bat - Quang Tri, had great merit in expanding Dang Trong".

Third, Quang Tri Town High School has had a 50-year development journey with many great achievements. In 2024, the school was honored to receive the Third Class Independence Medal from the President. During that process, Quang Tri Town High School inherited Nguyen Hoang Quang Tri High School through the following four factors: First, inheritance in terms of location: Nguyen Hoang High School and Quang Tri Town High School started in two different locations, but eventually converged on the same piece of land at the foot of the Ancient Citadel, both schools shared the same flag-raising yard; Second, inheritance in terms of students: after 1975, many former students of Nguyen Hoang High School before 1975 returned to study at the school; Third, inheritance in terms of teachers: after 1975, there were 7 teachers, former professors of Nguyen Hoang High School, who returned to teach at this school; Fourth, students of Quang Tri Town High School inherit the tradition of studiousness of Quang Tri people, including Nguyen Hoang student, when many of them won national and international awards and brought the Road to Olympia television bridge to their home province three times.

Debt to history and homeland when there is no school named Nguyen Hoang

Nationwide, Hue city has established a cluster of works honoring Lord Nguyen Hoang, which are Nguyen Hoang bus station, Nguyen Hoang street, Nguyen Hoang secondary school and Nguyen Hoang bridge; Thanh Hoa province has Nguyen Hoang high school (changed from its old name of Ha Trung semi-public high school). In Quang Tri province, in Quang Tri town, Ai Tu town and Cam Lo town, there are streets named after Nguyen Hoang, there is a temple to worship Thai Pho Nguyen U Di in Trieu Giang commune, Trieu Phong district; on April 16, 2025, Gio An commune People's Committee, Gio Linh district, held a groundbreaking ceremony to build a temple to worship Lord Tien Nguyen Hoang in An Nha village.

I think that by the time Quang Tri province officially comes into operation, the country will enter a new era, but on the land chosen by Lord Tien to start the career of opening up the country, there is no school named Nguyen Hoang, which is a shortcoming, a great "debt" to the history and homeland of many generations who built and developed Quang Tri province after 36 years of reestablishment (1989 - 2025).

In 2025, commemorating the 500th birthday of Nguyen Hoang, naming Quang Tri Town High School "Nguyen Hoang High School" not only honors the merits of Lord Nguyen, contributes to educating values, affirms identity but also creates a historical connection between School - Homeland - Country. Nguyen Hoang School, together with Le Quy Don, Chu Van An, Nguyen Hue, Bui Duc Tai, Nguyen Huu Than schools... creates an underground stream of studiousness and creativity that flows forever, so that the land and people of Quang Tri will last forever, worthy of the ancestors and many generations of Vietnamese people who sacrificed for this land.

Ho Sy Anh - Nguyen Binh

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/can-thiet-dieu-chinh-ten-truong-khi-bo-huyen-thi-xa-va-thi-tran-193069.htm