Lai Chau turns difficulties into driving force for educational development

However, the provincial Department of Education and Training has been making constant efforts, using difficulties as motivation to shorten the gap with the lowlands.

Efforts to improve quality

As a mountainous province with many difficulties, Lai Chau often lacks teachers, especially in remote areas and with new subjects according to the 2018 General Education Program. The source of teachers is even more limited in subjects such as English, Information Technology, Fine Arts, and Music.

The dropout rate of secondary school students is still higher than the target (1.1%, exceeding the target by 0.6%). Part of the reason is that parents do not pay enough attention to their children's education, many families have difficult circumstances, causing students to drop out of school to work for a living.

Some schools are still lacking in facilities and teaching equipment due to limited investment capital, many of which are old and no longer suitable. Many schools lack information technology infrastructure and are not yet synchronized; some schools in remote areas have unstable Internet signals, affecting management, teaching and learning.

According to Mr. Mac Quang Dung - Director of Lai Chau Department of Education and Training, those difficulties are big challenges for the local education development. However, with many efforts, the provincial education sector has been gradually overcoming them to improve the overall quality of education .

In the 2024-2025 school year, with the theme "Innovation, quality improvement, solidarity and discipline", Lai Chau Education and Training sector has synchronously deployed many key tasks and solutions and basically completed the school year's goals well.

The sector continues to review and rearrange schools and classes in a streamlined manner, in line with local realities, creating favorable conditions for learners, while contributing to improving the quality of education. The province currently has 336 schools, nearly 5,200 classes with about 150,000 students.

“The education and training sector coordinates with localities to deploy synchronous solutions to ensure that the staff meets teaching requirements; at the same time, improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of education; implement fairness in access to education, with special attention to ethnic minorities and remote areas…”, Mr. Dung said.

With over 80% of the population being ethnic minorities, ethnic education has always been a focus. The province continues to invest in expanding the scale of ethnic boarding schools, improving the quality of boarding and semi-boarding schools to create a source of quality cadres, especially ethnic minority cadres in line with the socio-economic development orientation.

Lai Chau maintains universal preschool education standards for 5-year-old children, primary school level 3, secondary school level 2 and illiteracy eradication level 1.

The Education sector continues to effectively implement the Project "Teaching and learning foreign languages in the national education system for the period 2017 - 2025"; at the same time, it builds a roadmap to participate in international education quality assessment programs, gradually approaching international standards.

“The quality of mass education and key education continues to be improved. The sector organizes well emulation movements, promotes administrative reform, digital transformation; coordinates communication to raise awareness, creating consensus in the whole society,” Mr. Dung emphasized.

Teachers and students of Nung Nang Kindergarten (Tan Phong, Lai Chau)

Bridging the education gap

From efforts to overcome difficulties, Lai Chau Education and Training sector has drawn many lessons, gradually narrowing the educational gap compared to more favorable regions.

Mr. Mac Quang Dung said: “The close leadership and direction of the Provincial Party Committee, People's Council and Provincial People's Committee is a key factor. Correct policies, resolutions and timely investment resources have created a solid foundation for all educational activities.”

The teaching staff is identified as the decisive factor in quality. The sector always focuses on building a team of teachers and managers with sufficient quantity, meeting professional standards, having professional ethics, sense of responsibility and dedication to the profession, especially the heads of units.

“Leaders need to constantly learn to improve their management capacity, innovate their thinking, work scientifically, and set an example to arouse collective strength and complete tasks together,” Mr. Dung shared.

The education and training sector also promotes the application of information technology and digital transformation, considering this a key task to improve management efficiency, innovate teaching methods, and assess and control educational quality.

In the coming school year and the following years, the sector continues to aim to improve the quality of comprehensive education, develop high-quality human resources, and meet the requirements of local socio-economic development.

To effectively implement the goal, the provincial Education sector has proposed 11 key groups of solutions, focusing on perfecting institutions, improving the effectiveness of State management; and specifying the tasks in the Politburo's Conclusion on continuing to implement Resolution No. 29.

The sector also focuses on innovating school governance towards increasing autonomy, enhancing accountability, promoting democracy in educational institutions; promoting decentralization and delegation of authority associated with implementation responsibilities; building a team of qualified teachers and managers, sufficient in number, meeting the requirements of implementing the 2018 General Education Program.

In addition, the industry continues to implement educational programs with sustainable solutions, improving the quality of mass education, key education and exam effectiveness.

“We will continue to implement the education program to ensure quality and depth; strengthen the assurance of conditions for facilities, teaching equipment, and staff for the new school year. Along with that, we will promote administrative reform and digital transformation in education. Continue to operate the database of the education and training sector stably, ensuring 'correct, sufficient, clean, alive', connecting and sharing data effectively with the national database on population and other systems", said Mr. Mac Quang Dung.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/lai-chau-bien-kho-khan-thanh-dong-luc-phat-trien-giao-duc-post740182.html