Rebuilding schools and classrooms after administrative unit arrangement

Students of Quang Phu Secondary School, Quang Phu Ward during recess.

After being established under Resolution No. 1686/NQ-UBTVQH15 dated June 16, 2025 of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Nam Sam Son ward has up to 14 schools of all levels. Including 5 kindergartens, 4 primary schools, 4 secondary schools, 1 primary and secondary school. Schools in the ward have a total of 233 classes with nearly 8,000 students. Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Nam Sam Son ward Van Thi Hang said: "This number is many times higher than that of a previous commune-level locality. To meet the teaching and learning requirements of school units, the ward's professional departments have advised the local government to develop an investment plan to upgrade school facilities and classrooms in the area for the period 2026-2030 with a total estimated investment cost for the whole period of about 100 billion VND".

In Quang Phu ward, after being established on the basis of merging the natural area and population size of 7 wards: Quang Hung, Quang Tam, Quang Thanh, Quang Dong, Quang Thinh, Quang Cat and Quang Phu, the whole ward has a total of 29 schools at all levels, including 22 public schools and 7 private schools. Currently, all 22 public schools at all levels in the ward have met national standards. This is one of the important premises contributing to improving the quality of education in each school unit as well as in the whole ward. However, in order to realize the policy of fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training (GD&DT) as well as the requirements when operating a 2-level local government, school units and local governments are aiming to rebuild schools and classrooms in terms of both quality and facilities.

Teacher Chu Dang Phan, Principal of Quang Phu Secondary School, Quang Phu Ward said: “Currently, the school's facilities basically meet the requirements of teaching and learning according to the 2018 General Education Program. However, in the long term and also to meet the requirements of operating a two-level local government, the school is advising the local government to build it into a high-quality key school, attracting excellent students from the whole ward to study. To do this, a large resource is needed to rebuild the school, classrooms as well as human resources to meet the requirements of innovation.”

When the two-level local government shifts from the state of "running and lining up" to "straight lines", the reconstruction and rearrangement of the education network will also be a "revolution" of strategic significance, not only to streamline the apparatus, but also to create a modern, high-quality and sustainable education system. Recently, the Department of Education and Training issued Document No. 3834/SGDĐT-GDNN&GDTX on proposing plans to arrange public educational institutions in the area to submit to competent authorities for consideration and decision. Accordingly, from the current status of educational institutions in the province, the Department of Education and Training proposed to develop 4 projects, including: Project to review and arrange public preschool and general education institutions in Thanh Hoa province; Project to review and arrange public vocational education (GDNN) - continuing education (GDTX) centers in Thanh Hoa province; Project to review and arrange public colleges and intermediate schools managed by the province; Project to review and arrange public universities managed by the province.

The document also clearly states: For preschool and general education facilities in 16 border communes, build boarding schools for primary and secondary schools on the basis of merging primary and secondary schools, with at least one school in each commune. For the remaining public preschool and general education facilities in the province, arrange them according to the direction in Official Dispatch No. 6165/BGDĐT-GDPT dated October 2, 2025 of the Ministry of Education and Training. For 23 vocational education and continuing education centers and 1 general technical education and continuing education center, the Department of Education and Training proposes to merge and convert them into 14 vocational high schools.

For the two existing universities (under the Provincial People's Committee), the Department of Education and Training proposed merging the University of Culture, Sports and Tourism into Hong Duc University. The merger will help reduce the number of university education institutions, form a multidisciplinary university, increase the attraction of learners and international cooperation, and focus investment resources to increase the scale and quality of training. For colleges, it is proposed to keep the following schools: College of Agriculture and College of Medicine. Particularly, Thanh Hoa Industrial College will merge with Nghi Son Vocational College to become Thanh Hoa Industrial College. For secondary schools, the Department of Education and Training proposed to keep the Secondary Vocational College of Transport, because this is an autonomous unit in regular and investment expenditures; Proposal to allow the Mountainous Vocational College and the Tourism Trade Vocational College to develop a plan for autonomy in regular spending and maintain the status quo... According to the proposal of the Department of Education and Training, in the province there are currently 38 universities, colleges, intermediate schools, and continuing education institutions. After the rearrangement, there will be 24 institutions (a reduction of 14 institutions).

Rebuilding and reorganizing the school network is necessary, especially in the current period. However, many people wish that the reorganization and merger of schools will not affect or disrupt the learning of students. In particular, keeping the students' learning locations as before the reorganization, without affecting the organization of educational service provision activities to serve the needs of learners is also the wish of the people at this time.

Article and photos: Le Phong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tai-thiet-truong-lop-sau-sap-xep-don-vi-hanh-chinh-267888.htm