Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai: The opening ceremony of the new school year must be concise but meaningful.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai requested the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training to review and prepare for a concise but meaningful opening ceremony for the new school year, focusing on addressing some existing issues in the education sector such as teacher shortages, fee collection, and the use of collected funds in schools.

The scene at the meeting. Photo: VIET DUNG

On the morning of September 4th, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee held its regular meeting on socio -economic issues for August. Comrade Phan Van Mai, Member of the Central Committee of the Party, Deputy Secretary of the City Party Committee, and Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, presided over the meeting.

In his directive, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai requested the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training to review and prepare for a truly concise but meaningful opening ceremony, linked to addressing some existing problems in the education sector such as teacher shortages.

According to Comrade Phan Van Mai, Ho Chi Minh City has abundant foreign language human resources but still lacks foreign language teachers, partly due to inadequate recruitment policies. Therefore, he requested the Department of Education and Training to take the lead in reviewing and proposing mechanisms and policies to attract and collaborate with educational institutions to train this human resource.

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai speaks at the meeting. Photo: VIET DUNG

Regarding the issue of school fees at the beginning of the school year, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City stated that the fee levels have been clearly regulated. Therefore, the collection and expenditure must be transparent. Some additional items can be solicited, but they must be practical and have the consent of parents. If parents do not agree, then no fees should be collected.

The Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee encouraged the press to report on the excessive fees and improper fundraising at schools. He also requested the Director of the Department of Education and Training to closely supervise and prevent such practices. Furthermore, the education sector needs to coordinate closely with the health sector to address issues related to the measles outbreak; pay attention to resolving issues related to the American International School; and review similar cases to ensure they do not negatively impact students' learning.

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, Nguyen Van Hieu, reports at the meeting. Photo: VIET DUNG

Earlier, reporting at a meeting on preparations for the new school year, the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, Nguyen Van Hieu, stated that the department had advised the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to organize 21 delegations of city leaders and representatives from various departments and agencies to attend the opening ceremonies of the new school year at schools throughout the city. These included two private schools (in Thu Duc City and Tan Phu District). These are two exemplary private schools in Ho Chi Minh City.

For the 2024-2025 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will see an increase of over 24,000 students, but the city guarantees that 100% of students will have a place to study. To prepare for the new school year, in 2024 Ho Chi Minh City will complete 23 projects with 476 classrooms. Of these, 18 school projects with 413 classrooms will be inaugurated in early September; an additional 5 projects with 63 classrooms are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Ho Chi Minh City will also invest over 544 billion VND in repairing toilets and upgrading classroom equipment.

Regarding the measles outbreak in Ho Chi Minh City, the Department of Education and Training, in coordination with the Department of Health, is reviewing and administering measles vaccines to students throughout the holiday period. On this matter, the Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, Tang Chi Thuong, stated that just two days after the city declared the outbreak, 300,000 doses of vaccine arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, and over 17,000 children have been vaccinated. Currently, the department is implementing a campaign of "going door-to-door, checking every child" to ensure that all children receive the full vaccination. Children who have already received two doses of the measles vaccine do not need to be vaccinated again.

Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health, Tang Chi Thuong, discusses at the meeting. Photo: VIET DUNG

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment, Le Thi Huynh Mai, assessed the socio-economic situation in August and the first eight months of the year as having positive results. Specifically, the industrial production index (IIP) increased by 6.4% compared to the same period last year; total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue are estimated at VND 765,233 billion, an increase of 10.3% compared to the same period last year. Transportation activities in the area continued to grow positively, with total transportation revenue increasing by 37.5%, of which transportation support activities increased by 53.5%; total tourism revenue is estimated at VND 123,381 billion, an increase of 14.7% compared to the same period last year.

Besides the positive points, the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment acknowledged some limitations, such as the fact that the disbursement of public investment capital as of August 23rd only reached VND 13,924.4 billion, achieving only 17.6% of the 2024 capital plan. In addition, the private investment environment has not yet recovered; the number of newly established businesses increased by 6.5% in quantity but decreased by 10.2% in registered capital compared to the same period; the number of dissolved businesses increased by 2.2%, and the number of temporarily suspended operations increased by 8% compared to the same period; 11,098 businesses resumed operations, an increase of 17% compared to the same period, and Ho Chi Minh City needs to disburse approximately VND 20,000 billion each month in the last months of the year.

Director of the Department of Planning and Investment, Le Thi Huynh Mai, reports at the meeting. Photo: VIET DUNG

In the first eight months, economic sectors attracted and provided employment for 221,337 people (reaching 73.78% of the annual plan), including creating 99,617 new jobs out of 140,000 (reaching 71.16% of the annual plan). The management of foreign workers was also emphasized. As of August, the total number of trained workers reached 4,315,286 (87.96%). As of July 31st, more than 2.5 million out of over 4.9 million workers participated in social insurance, accounting for 51.94% of the working-age labor force.

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