Lao Cai Education overcomes difficulties to welcome new school year

The 2025-2026 school year is the first year that Lao Cai, together with the whole country, implements the two-level local government model, while implementing the Law on Teachers and the National Assembly's Resolution on universalizing preschool education for children from 3 to 5 years old.

This is also the year to begin implementing resolutions of Party Committees at all levels for the 2025-2030 term. Faced with great opportunities and challenges in implementing education and training tasks, Lao Cai is actively implementing solutions to maintain stability, ensure the staff and teachers in educational institutions and overcome difficulties in facilities, and prepare carefully for the new school year.

Many concerns

Class time of combined grade 2 and 3 students at Seo Trung Ho Mong school, Ban Ho commune (Sa Pa).

Lack of staff resources and facilities that do not meet teaching needs are common situations in many schools in Lao Cai province in carrying out the tasks of the 2025-2026 school year with many innovations.

Van Chan commune was merged from 4 communes and towns of the old Yen Bai province, including Dong Khe, Suoi Bu, Suoi Giang communes and Son Thinh town. It has a large area, many highland villages, and a large proportion of ethnic minorities. Currently, there are 13 educational institutions in the commune, including 10 schools managed by the commune (including 4 kindergartens, 2 primary schools, 2 primary and secondary schools and 2 secondary schools). The whole commune currently has 163 groups/classes with more than 5,500 students; 9/10 schools meet national standards level 1 and 2 schools meet standards level 2.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, Vice Chairwoman of Van Chan Commune People's Committee, said that after implementing the two-level local government model, the Commune Culture and Social Affairs Department no longer has specialized staff in education, leading to difficulties and confusion in organizing, guiding and managing educational activities. The team of managers, teachers and staff at school units is still lacking and not uniform, especially at the junior high school level, there is a lack of English teachers. Currently, the whole commune lacks 32 teachers and 3 staff. The shortage of teachers of cultural subjects and special subjects at the junior high school level makes it difficult to organize two sessions/day and implement the 2018 general education program.

In addition, school facilities are still limited. Typically, Son Thinh Secondary School does not ensure conditions for teaching two sessions per day.

Lao Cai Border Ward was established on the basis of merging Coc Leu, Kim Tan, Lao Cai, Van Hoa, Duyen Hai wards and Ban Phiet commune; it is a key ward in terms of economy, politics and society of the province, and is also a bright spot in maintaining universal preschool education for 4 and 5 year old children. Currently, the whole ward has 14 preschools, 15 independent preschool classes, 11 independent children's groups with a total of 3,829 children. The rate of mobilizing children from 4-5 years old to attend class is 100%; 100% of children attending class are familiar with advanced educational methods; 80% of children from 4-5 years old are familiar with information technology; 85% of children are familiar with English.

The ward strives to achieve universal preschool education for children aged 3-5 by 2027. However, according to Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Dung, Vice Chairwoman of Lao Cai Ward People's Committee, with the implementation of two-level local government and universal preschool education for children aged 3-5, Lao Cai Ward still faces some difficulties in terms of facilities; lack of specialized staff with expertise and experience in teaching in the ward; the rate of obese children in central schools is still high; there is no specific mechanism, causing a shortage of preschool teachers...

The shortage of teachers at all levels has been a burning issue in Lao Cai for many years. Trinh Tuong Kindergarten, Trinh Tuong Commune, in the 2025-2026 school year, has 38 teachers/20 classes, reaching 1.9 teachers/class. Thus, the school is short of 2 teachers. The school's leaders said that while waiting for additional staff, the school will initially arrange 3 teachers to take charge of 2 classes and the management staff will also participate in teaching according to the norm for the classes lacking.

Efforts to overcome difficulties

Music class for students at Ta Gia Khau Primary Boarding School (Muong Khuong).

Faced with the above situation, in order to successfully carry out the tasks of the 2025-2026 school year, localities of Lao Cai province are making efforts to gradually overcome difficulties; find solutions to ensure human resources, arrange facilities, promote digital transformation, and socialize education...

Immediately after implementing the two-level local government, realizing the difficulties in education, Van Chan commune assigned leaders and specialists to be in charge, established a core staff team to support management work, professional activities, digital transformation, set up a fanpage to promote educational activities; set up a zalo group to regularly exchange and grasp information of schools.

To strengthen solutions to address the shortage of teachers and school staff, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha, Vice Chairwoman of Van Chan Commune People's Committee, said that the commune will initially direct schools to review their staff and temporarily propose to arrange contract teachers and guest teachers in positions where there are shortages. At the same time, the commune will review, adjust, and reassign the teaching staff among schools and school locations appropriately; continue to propose additional recruitment to meet the assigned staff quota.

In order to overcome the difficulties in facilities and teaching equipment, the locality has reviewed the surplus facilities after the merger of the communes before the merger, prioritizing handover to schools. Typically, the commune handed over the Suoi Giang commune headquarters to Suoi Giang Primary and Secondary School; the Suoi Bu commune headquarters was handed over to Suoi Bu Primary and Secondary School; the Dong Khe commune People's Committee handed over to Dong Khe Primary School for management and use. The commune increased investment in resources for education, speeding up the construction progress of the works. Recently, in August, the commune inaugurated the classroom and functional room construction for Suoi Giang Primary and Secondary School to celebrate the commune Party Congress and welcome the new school year.

To solve the problem of educational facilities, Lao Cai ward is planning to synchronously develop urban infrastructure in the direction of ensuring that the land fund for educational development has enough space to ensure the development roadmap, especially for non-public educational institutions to develop. Schools continue to promote digital transformation, in which special priority is given to applications for parents to monitor and support the supervision of child care and nurturing. In addition, according to Ms. Tran Thi Thuy Dung, Vice Chairman of Lao Cai Ward People's Committee, the ward proposed that the province continue to decentralize and authorize the People's Committees of communes to take the initiative in performing educational tasks such as personnel in the area; recommending competent authorities to issue mechanisms and policies to support private preschools with equipment, toys for children, etc.

According to the plan for the 2025-2026 school year, Lao Cai is expected to have 1,040 educational facilities. Currently, the province has 14,998 classrooms, with the rate of solid classrooms reaching 86%. To prepare conditions for facilities and teaching equipment for the 2025-2026 school year, Lao Cai is implementing 200 projects, with the capital allocated in 2025 being nearly 838 billion VND; 85 classrooms, subject classrooms have been completed; 125 boarding rooms, teacher offices and auxiliary works. The Lao Cai Specialized High School project is expected to be completed and handed over in August 2025.

To overcome the shortage of teachers, especially implementing the policy of teaching two sessions/day for general education, the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province said that the sector will advise the Provincial People's Committee to continue recruiting and supplementing the teacher payroll for the period 2026-2030; strengthen the transfer and secondment plan from places with surplus to places with shortage; teachers teach inter-school; the policy of contracting good singers, artists, and athletes to teach special subjects such as music, fine arts, physical education, sports... for high school students.

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Source: https://baolaocai.vn/giao-duc-lao-cai-vuot-kho-don-nam-hoc-moi-post880298.html