Thanh Hoa: Difficulties in building and maintaining national standard school criteria

Building schools that meet national standards is one of the key tasks of the Education and Training sector to contribute to improving the quality of comprehensive education. However, the current situation in Thanh Hoa, the lack of teachers and facilities, especially classrooms and teaching equipment, is a "barrier" that makes it difficult for many schools in the area to be recognized and re-recognized as national standard schools.

Báo Tin Tức•21/10/2025

Photo caption — Despite difficulties, Dinh Hai Kindergarten in Thanh Hoa province is making efforts to build a national standard school. Photo: Nguyen Nam/ VNA

Xuan Lam Secondary School, Dao Duy Tu Ward, is scheduled to be re-recognized as a national standard school in phase 1 by 2024. However, due to the lack of investment and improvement in infrastructure, the school does not meet the requirements to be re-recognized as planned. Accordingly, the school has 15 classrooms built from 1994 to 1998. After more than 20 years of use, some items have seriously degraded. Specifically, the entire foundation system of the classrooms is peeling and sinking; the door system is infested with termites; the corrugated iron roof is rusty; the walls are cracked and seeping; The ceiling leaks, affecting the internal electrical system... Along with that, if considered according to the criteria of a national standard school, the school currently lacks 18 subject classrooms, a multi-purpose hall and many accompanying equipment... Along with the difficulties in facilities, this school year, although 3 more contract teachers were added, the school still lacks 7 subject teachers such as IT, math, physical education...

To overcome the difficulties, this school year, the school has converted two functional classrooms into cultural classrooms; along with that, the school has encouraged teachers to teach more hours and more sessions to ensure the program.

According to Ms. Nguyen Minh Nga, Principal of Xuan Lam Secondary School, Dao Duy Tu Ward, according to the Resolution of the 1st Congress of the Party Committee of Dao Duy Tu Ward, in the medium-term plan, the school will be invested in repairing and building new schools. Therefore, the school hopes that the local government will pay attention to investing to ensure that it meets the criteria for a standard school in the period of 2025-2030. There will be a new recruitment mechanism to supplement the teaching staff to meet the requirements of innovative teaching methods for the 2018 general education program. Along with that, the money to support teachers to increase their lessons from the previous school year has not been paid yet, we hope that the authorities at all levels will pay attention to resolving this to ensure the rights of teachers.

In 2018, Xuan Lam Kindergarten was recognized as a national standard in phase 1. After 5 years of efforts, the school was recognized again in 2023. However, regarding the criteria of facilities and equipment, the school is currently facing many difficulties. The school currently has 2 locations (1 main location and 1 separate location); the distance between the two locations, nearly 5km apart, is also one of the difficulties in operation and management. Along with that, the classrooms at the main location were built from 2023 to now, many items have degraded. The classroom area is narrow, no longer suitable for organizing educational activities according to the new general education program. Currently, the school's equipment and teaching aids are lacking, making it difficult to organize Stem activities according to the new general education program...

Teacher Tran Thi Huong, Principal of Xuan Lam Kindergarten, Dao Duy Tu Ward, said that the main point has been built for more than 20 years and is now degraded. She recommended that the competent authorities pay attention to investing and renovating it. In the long term, the ward needs to have a roadmap to relocate Xuan Lam Kindergarten to a new location near the primary and secondary school to develop a high-quality kindergarten model, convenient for parents to pick up and drop off and eliminate single points. Authorities at all levels should pay attention to supporting outdoor toys, tables and chairs, televisions and other equipment to serve the work of raising, caring for and educating children in accordance with the development trends in the new period...

According to Ms. Luong Thi Nhung, Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Dao Duy Tu Ward, currently in the ward there are a total of 8 schools from kindergarten to junior high school with more than 5,000 students and more than 200 teachers. In recent years, the Party committees and authorities at all levels, especially the Department of Education and Training, have paid attention to supplementing school facilities as well as the number of teachers for schools, gradually meeting the needs of teaching and learning. However, after the 2-level government came into operation in the ward, there are still many difficulties, the biggest of which is the facilities. Currently, there are basically enough classrooms, but schools still lack functional classrooms and many equipment... Along with the difficulties in facilities, the number of teachers in the area is very lacking.

To improve the quality of education, the Department will actively advise to complete the plan to arrange schools in the ward in the right direction to strive for 100% of schools to meet National standards level 1 by 2030, of which 50% will meet National standards level 2 in accordance with the spirit of the Resolution of the 1st Ward Party Congress, term 2025-2030. On that basis, the People's Committee of Dao Duy Tu ward hopes that the Party committees and authorities at all levels, especially the Department of Education and Training, will continue to pay attention to supporting, creating conditions, and allocating budgets to invest in school facilities and infrastructure to meet the standards of general education in 2018 and arrange enough teachers and staff for all levels to meet the needs of teaching 2 sessions/day as directed.

Although it was recognized as meeting level 1 standards in 2024, Thuy Son Kindergarten, Ngoc Lac Commune still owes some criteria on facilities. With the attention of the local government, the school has invested in building 6 new classrooms to meet the needs of nurturing, caring for and educating children. According to the plan for the 2025-2026 school year, 6 new classrooms will be handed over to the school for use. However, due to some procedural problems, this project, although more than 90% completed, has not yet been accepted.

According to Ms. Pham Thi Hien, Principal of Thuy Son Kindergarten Primary School, the school hopes that the investor will soon complete the procedures to hand over the project to the school for use. Along with that, the equipment of the 6 new classrooms currently has no investment source, so it is also difficult for the school. Currently, the facilities only meet the minimum needs of students, modern equipment for the new educational program such as large screen TVs, projectors, outdoor toys for Stem activities are not available. To achieve the goal of reaching level 2 standards in the year, the school proposes that leaders at all levels pay attention to creating conditions to supplement the facilities for the school to meet the criteria to reach level 2 standards according to the proposed plan.

In the 2024-2025 school year, the Thanh Hoa education and training sector has strived to complete the set goals and tasks in the spirit of comprehensive innovation with many outstanding results. The network and scale of schools continue to receive investment attention. The whole province has over 25,700 solid classrooms, reaching 90% of the total number of classrooms; the rate of national standard schools is 86.8%. This school year, despite many difficulties, authorities at all levels together with schools are making efforts to devote resources to investing in facilities, gradually improving the quality of education...

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/giao-duc/thanh-hoa-kho-khan-trong-xay-dung-va-duy-tri-cac-tieu-chi-truong-chuan-quoc-gia-20251021122705978.htm