Ho Chi Minh City under pressure due to lack of schools

BUILD MORE NEW SCHOOLS AND CLASSROOMS

After a year of having to temporarily study at two other secondary schools, in the 2023-2024 school year, more than 2,000 students of Ngo Quyen Secondary School (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) were able to return to study and live at a new, spacious and modern school. Ngo Quyen Secondary School was newly built on an area of ​​over 3,100 ^m2 with a scale of 4 floors above ground and 1 basement.

Ho Chi Minh City students on the first day of school for the new school year 2023-2024

According to the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Tan Binh District, Ngo Quyen School has a total investment of nearly 81 billion VND, has 30 classrooms and 7 functional rooms including 3 physics-chemistry-biology practice rooms, 2 foreign language rooms, 2 computer rooms with 100 computers. All classrooms are equipped with projectors, screens, and standard sound systems. Each floor is equipped with a wifi transceiver system to support teaching.

In addition, the library is integrated in the direction of a smart library with dozens of computers connected to the internet for students and teachers to look up, serve teaching and learning activities...

In the 2023-2024 school year, Binh Chanh District will have about 110,000 school-age students, an increase of about 2,000 students compared to the previous school year. This school year, Binh Chanh District will put into use 3 new schools for 3 levels, namely Binh Hung Kindergarten, Rach Gia Primary School and Trung Son Secondary School. In addition, the district will put into use 8 new classrooms at Dong Den Secondary School and Vinh Loc A Secondary School.

Computer room of Ngo Quyen Secondary School (Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City)

FINDING SOLUTIONS TO HAVE ENOUGH SCHOOL PLACES FOR STUDENTS

Ms. Nguyen Thi My Chau, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Binh Chanh District, shared that the pressure on schools in this district is mainly concentrated in the two communes of Vinh Loc A and Vinh Loc B. In the new school year, although 3 new schools and 8 new classrooms have been put into use, schools in these two communes still face difficulties in organizing 2 sessions per day for students because they have to meet the demand for enough space for students.

Similarly, this new school year, District 12 has increased by about 3,000 students and to ensure enough places for students, Mr. Khuu Manh Hung, Head of the District Education and Training Department, said that the locality had to implement an immediate solution of reducing the rate of students studying 2 sessions/day and increasing the number of students/class. Specifically, 30% of primary school students and 22% of secondary school students study 2 sessions/day.

In addition, according to Mr. Khuu Manh Hung, there is a parallel solution regarding facilities. In order to reduce pressure on students at the beginning of the new school year, the district flexibly puts new schools into use in a rolling manner. That is, construction is carried out in phases so that they can be put into use as soon as they are completed, instead of waiting for the project to be completed. For example, Tran Quoc Toan Primary School in Thoi An Ward has completed phase 1 with 10 classrooms and functional rooms, in time to welcome students to start the 2023-2024 school year. Phase 2 of the school with the remaining 10 classrooms is expected to be completed and put into use in the 2024-2025 school year.

HCM CITY PROPOSAL ON SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION REGULATIONS

The leaders of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training also frankly admitted that the city is facing special difficulties in terms of land for construction. At the same time, the regulations in Circular 13 of the Ministry of Education and Training on school facilities standards are not suitable for the reality of Ho Chi Minh City.

Recently, in a working session between the Department of Education and Training with the leaders of Thu Duc City and districts on the coordination to improve the qualityof education according to Regulation 07 of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, the leaders of the districts pointed out the difficulties they are facing in developing schools.

Rach Gia Primary School, Hung Long Commune, Binh Chanh, one of three schools that will be put into use this school year in Binh Chanh District.

For example, Mr. Nguyen Viet Que Son, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Binh Tan District Party Committee, said that the district has difficulty in land funds to implement school projects. 100% of current projects in the district must be cleared and compensated for land. The district is implementing 12 projects, focusing on building primary schools because the number of primary school students in the district is currently high.

The leader of Binh Tan District said that the district is reviewing to have land and a project to build schools, especially to implement the target that by 2025 the district will have 700 - 1,000 classrooms. At the same time, the district also proposed the city to change the purpose of use for some land funds of central units and the city that are not being used effectively to build schools...

Or the leaders of District 12 also frankly admitted that the district is facing difficulties in the high number of students and the number of students studying 2 sessions/day and the number of classes studying 2 sessions/day has decreased. The fundamental reasons are the lack of schools, lack of capital and some projects have not been included in the list of medium-term public investment for the period 2021-2025.

Target to build 4,500 new classrooms in the period 2023-2025

Each school year, Ho Chi Minh City increases by an average of 20,000 - 40,000 students, so in its school construction plan, the city has set a goal of completing the construction of 4,500 new classrooms in the 2023-2025 period, an increase of 3,537 classrooms compared to the present time. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, Ho Chi Minh City will put into use 48 schools, with a total of 512 newly built classrooms, an increase of 367 classrooms compared to the 2022-2023 school year. The new schools put into use are concentrated in districts 5, 10, Binh Thanh, Hoc Mon district and Thu Duc city...

It is expected that in the 2024-2025 school year, Ho Chi Minh City will complete 71 new schools, with 1,469 newly built classrooms. By the 2025-2026 school year, 47 new schools will be completed, with 1,134 new classrooms put into use.

Mr. Nguyen Tang Minh, Standing Deputy Secretary of District 11 Party Committee, said that District 11 currently has 303 classrooms compared to the target of 300 classrooms/10,000 school-age people. However, the biggest difficulty currently facing the district is Circular 13 of the Ministry of Education and Training. According to this circular, if a school with 25 classrooms wants to renovate or expand, it will only have 4-8 classrooms left, making it very difficult to renovate schools in the inner city. Therefore, District 11 also proposed that the city recommend the Ministry of Education and Training to review this regulation and possibly adjust it to suit Ho Chi Minh City because it does not have the same area conditions as other provinces and cities.

A representative of the Department of Planning and Investment of Ho Chi Minh City said that Circular 13 has affected the approval of investment projects. For Ho Chi Minh City, due to the small land area, it sometimes also affects the project plans in the medium-term public investment plan.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, also said that the land issue of the city is very difficult. As Circular 13 stipulates that primary schools must not exceed 2 floors, secondary schools must not exceed 3 floors, so how can the city have land to build schools? Therefore, the head of the city's education sector said that the Department has consulted with the City People's Committee to propose to the Ministry of Education and Training to adjust Circular 13, allowing the city to calculate based on the construction floor area per student and schools can have many floors and add floors.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nam-hoc-moi-tphcm-truoc-ap-luc-thieu-truong-lop-185230828234510419.htm