School facilities are improved, but there are still many difficulties.

Continuing the program of the 2025 Department of Education and Training Directors' Conference, on the morning of July 28, Mr. Tran Thanh Dam, Director of the Department of Planning and Finance, gave a thematic report on facilities and teaching equipment for the 2024-2025 school year. Minister Nguyen Kim Son chaired the conference.

The need for investment in facilities and teaching equipment is huge.

According to the report of the Department of Planning and Finance, localities have focused on solidifying, standardizing, and modernizing facilities, eliminating temporary and degraded classrooms, ensuring class sizes according to regulations, and creating safe conditions for students to go to school.

Solutions have been deployed to mobilize social resources and apply preferential policies on land, tax, and credit to support non-public educational institutions.

Educational institutions organize a movement to make, improve and repair teaching equipment themselves to increase efficiency.

Departments of Education and Training direct strict implementation of regulations on investment and use of equipment; develop usage plans and organize training for staff and teachers on exploitation and preservation of equipment, utensils and toys.

According to statistics, the whole country has 618,284 public preschool and general education classrooms; of which, 554,142 are solid classrooms, reaching a solidification rate of 89.6%. Regarding primary school classrooms, they are basically enough to ensure 2 sessions of teaching/day. Facilities such as libraries, subject classrooms, offices, teachers' offices, dining halls, boarding houses, toilets, clean water, teaching equipment, etc. have also received investment attention.

However, investment in equipment is not yet synchronous and effective. Localities have not paid attention to developing standards and norms for the use of specialized areas according to the provisions of Decree 155/2025/ND-CP.

Investment in minimum teaching equipment is still slow, facing many difficulties in terms of funding, unit prices, price appraisal and purchasing procedures, affecting the teaching and learning process. In addition, the fear of responsibility makes some agencies and businesses not actively participate in supplying equipment.

Investment resources for education have not met the requirements of innovation and development. Some localities have not prioritized the allocation of local budgets for education, depending mainly on central resources, and some places have even returned the budget due to inability to use it.

The proportion of state budget expenditure for education in the 2013-2024 period has not reached the minimum level of 20%; of which regular expenditure accounts for a large proportion (83.4%), investment expenditure accounts for only 17.6%, not enough to meet the needs of renovating, upgrading facilities and making new investments in educational institutions.

Through synthesizing reports from localities, the need for investment in facilities and teaching equipment for preschool and general education is as follows:

Reinforce schools and classrooms: build 75,380 classrooms;

Build enough additional classrooms and the number of students in each class does not exceed the regulations for each level of education: 66,799 classrooms;

Build additional subject classrooms to ensure implementation of the 2018 General Education Program: add 25,854 classrooms;

Along with that, it is necessary to build 12,463 additional library rooms; 10,794 additional public housing for teachers; 253,795 additional sets of minimum teaching equipment for all levels.

At the same time, additional construction items to serve the living, nurturing and care of boarding and semi-boarding students will be built: including 39,078 boarding rooms; 2,057 kitchens; 1,621 kitchen storages; 1,793 dining rooms; 2,087 toilets - clean water facilities; 2,440 rooms for managing boarding and semi-boarding students; 1,272 common rooms; 884 cultural houses; 1,849 technical infrastructure areas.

Synchronize solutions

Regarding tasks and solutions, Mr. Tran Thanh Dam first mentioned the arrangement and reorganization of educational facilities. Localities need to review, arrange, and reorganize preschool, general education, and continuing education facilities according to the instructions in Official Dispatch No. 826/BGDĐT-CSVC dated February 29, 2024 to ensure effectiveness, suitability with the conditions of facilities, teaching staff, and educational quality.

The reorganization must have a roadmap, avoiding focusing only on reducing the number of public service units or staff. At the same time, it is necessary to establish a reasonable land use plan, prioritizing land allocation for school construction in new urban areas, resettlement areas, densely populated areas and inefficiently used land areas.

On the basis of school network planning, it is necessary to develop programs and projects for investment in facilities with specific assignment of responsibilities to government levels according to management decentralization.

Second, regarding standards and norms: localities need to develop and promulgate standards and norms for the use of area and teaching equipment for all levels of education according to regulations, as a basis for making investment plans. Regarding area, it is necessary to comply with Decree 155/2025/ND-CP, Circular 13/2020/TT-BGDDT, Circular 23/2024/TT-BGDDT. Regarding equipment, it is necessary to ensure the minimum according to the list issued by the Ministry of Education and Training . For equipment not on the list, localities must proactively promulgate standards according to reality, ensuring effective use in accordance with socio-economic conditions.

Third, regarding infrastructure investment, localities need to review the current situation, determine the need for new construction and renovation, and prioritize investment in infrastructure to ensure minimum conditions for educational programs, especially in disadvantaged areas.

The purchase of teaching equipment must be based on an assessment of the current situation, determination of needs, specific planning, selection of appropriate, economical and effective equipment. Modern equipment should only be purchased when the minimum equipment requirements are met and the conditions for exploitation and use are sufficient.

Encourage the movement of making equipment yourself and ensure that product inspection and acceptance are organized according to regulations.

Fourth, regarding the purchase of minimum teaching equipment according to regulations, it is necessary to review existing teaching equipment (still in use, repaired, liquidated); based on actual needs, the list of minimum teaching equipment according to regulations, the roadmap for implementing the 2018 General Education Program, make a purchasing plan; select appropriate types of equipment, ensuring sufficient quantity, efficiency, savings, and avoiding waste. For modern equipment, in addition to the list of minimum teaching equipment, only purchase after fully equipping the equipment according to the list; urgently organize the purchase and bidding of teaching equipment to put into use before the new school year.

Fifth, regarding investment resources, prioritize local budget allocation to invest in facilities and teaching equipment, while effectively integrating with national target programs such as new rural construction, sustainable poverty reduction, and ethnic minority development. Encourage the mobilization of social resources from individuals, businesses, and investors in various forms to solve investment difficulties.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training is developing the National Target Program on modernization and improvement of education and training quality for the period 2026 - 2035, expected to be submitted to the National Assembly for comments in October 2025 and the Project "Building boarding and semi-boarding schools for high school students in remote, border and island areas for the period 2026 - 2030, with a vision to 2035". This is an important basis and resource to support localities in strengthening facilities, teaching equipment, and modernizing the education and training system.

Regarding implementation, Mr. Tran Thanh Dam said that the Departments of Education and Training, based on the content of the guiding document and the local practical situation, will take the lead in developing a master plan for investment in purchasing facilities and teaching equipment; take the lead in coordinating with relevant departments and agencies to organize inspections, checks, and supervision of the implementation of legal documents on facilities and teaching equipment; strictly implement the regular reporting regime according to regulations and ad hoc reporting to ensure quality and timeliness.

The Ministry of Education and Training shall preside over and coordinate with ministries, departments and branches to organize inspections, examinations and evaluations of the implementation results of facilities and teaching equipment in localities.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/co-so-vat-chat-truong-hoc-duoc-tang-cuong-nhung-van-nhieu-kho-khan-post741863.html