Half a century of prioritizing education development

Up to now, Dong Nai has a system of schools and the number of teachers and students ranked 5th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide. In addition, the system of vocational training facilities has been completed from intermediate to university and has a worthy position in the key economic region of the South.

Students of Trinh Hoai Duc Secondary School (Quang Tien Commune, Trang Bom District) learn about robot programming. Photo: C. Nghia

Director of the Departmentof Education and Training (DET) Truong Thi Kim Hue said: “Dong Nai’s education and training has made great strides in development after half a century since the Liberation of the South and the reunification of the country. This achievement is thanks to the strategic investment attention of the provincial leaders over the years, always considering education and training as the top national policy”.

Rise from hardship

After the Liberation of the South and the reunification of the country, the education sector in Dong Nai faced numerous difficulties, as schools and teachers were lacking in both quantity and quality. Many remote areas such as Xuan Loc, Dinh Quan, Tan Phu, Vinh Cuu, etc. had mostly temporary schools. Students from the communes had to travel very far to reach schools located in the commune or district centers. The teaching staff was not only lacking but also had limited qualifications, mainly graduating from intermediate teacher training courses. In particular, the gap in educational development between urban, rural, remote and isolated areas was still very large.

In Phu Ly commune (Vinh Cuu district), after the liberation, the majority of the people were ethnic minorities who could not read or write. However, now the commune has all levels of education from kindergarten to high school, with 100% of the schools recognized as national standard schools. Education has changed both the awareness and the economy of many families.

Former Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training Vo Ngoc Thach said that Dong Nai has focused on developing education in a synchronous manner, not leaving any people out of the education policy. Disadvantaged groups are also given more attention. For example, after finishing junior high school, ethnic minority students will be given priority to study at the provincial boarding school for ethnic minorities in Trung Hoa commune (Trang Bom district). Not only are they exempted from tuition fees, but they are also provided with additional monthly study expenses.

According to the Department of Education and Training, Dong Nai is one of the provinces and cities with the largest scale of schools, teachers and students in the country with over 920 schools from kindergarten to high school. At the preschool and high school levels alone, the whole province has over 33,000 teachers and over 730,000 students. Dong Nai is also one of the localities with a strong development of the system of universities, colleges and intermediate schools, ranking second in the Southeast region, after Ho Chi Minh City.

Dong Nai currently has 188/922 schools from kindergarten to high school invested by socialized capital (accounting for 20.6% of the total number of educational institutions in the province). The province's network of non-public schools is providing places for 145,000 students at all levels from kindergarten to high school (accounting for about 19% of the total number of students in the province).

Raising the level of education in Dong Nai

In the Dong Nai Provincial Planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, which has just been approved by the Government, the education and training sector continues to be identified as having an important position with specific investment steps. In the province's orientation, Dong Nai will have a series of new educational institutions, including Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy opening a campus in Phuoc Binh commune (Long Thanh district); Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport opening a training facility for aviation and high-speed railway in An Phuoc commune (Long Thanh district); Ho Chi Minh City Open University opening a branch in Long Binh Tan ward (Bien Hoa city). In addition, the province plans urban areas for higher education in Nhon Trach district and Long Khanh city...

With its position in the Southeast region and the whole country, Dong Nai is expected to develop a high-quality educational ecosystem, associated with the new era of national growth.

According to the Department of Finance, recently, many units have come to Dong Nai to learn about investment opportunities in high-quality higher education and vocational training facilities in the province. Specifically, many investors want to invest in the fields of high-quality human resource training with diverse majors such as aviation human resources, logistics transportation, opening international-class general education facilities to universities. In the near future, Dong Nai will have a nuclear research center and a high-speed railway research and development center planned in Hang Gon commune (Long Khanh city).

Principal of Lilama 2 International Technology College (in Long Phuoc Commune, Long Thanh District) Nguyen Khanh Cuong shared that although it is only a college-level training school, over the past years, with the province's attention and support, the school has had many key majors in electronics, refrigeration, and precision mechanics that meet the standards of the UK, the US, and Australia. The school has quickly seized the opportunity to train aviation human resources with leading aviation enterprises in Vietnam such as: Vietnam Airports Corporation (ACV), Vietjet Air, and is moving towards providing aviation human resources for the Long Thanh International Airport Project that is about to come into operation.

Meanwhile, the Principal of Lac Hong University, Lam Thanh Hien, said that over the past 30 years, the school has strived to grow from the very difficult and challenging first steps and has now become a large-scale university in the province. To contribute to providing human resources according to the development orientation and attracting investment of the province, the school has trained new majors such as logistics, artificial intelligence (AI), and semiconductor microchips. In addition, the school constantly standardizes training majors according to ASEAN and US standards.

Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training Do Dang Bao Linh said that with a large population, a huge demand for schools, and limited investment resources from the annual budget for education, in recent years, Dong Nai has been proactive and flexible in implementing the policy of socializing education at all levels. In the coming time, in addition to developing the network of public educational institutions, the sector will continue to advise the province to promote attracting investors to invest in the field of education and high-quality human resources.

Dang Cong

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/giao-duc/202504/nua-the-ky-uu-tien-phat-trien-giao-duc-1ae1331/