Before the start of the new school year, the whole country is short of tens of thousands of classrooms.

The Ministry of Education and Training stated that preschool and primary school levels are still lacking tens of thousands of classrooms, with nearly 6,500 classrooms having to be used as temporary or borrowed spaces.

Students in disadvantaged areas of Lao Cai - Photo: VINH HA

On July 29th, at the ongoing 2025 conference of provincial education and training directors, Mr. Tran Thanh Dam, Head of the Planning and Finance Department ( Ministry of Education and Training ), stated that the localized shortage of classrooms in densely populated areas, mountainous regions, remote areas, and areas with special difficulties still persists.

In preschool education alone, there is currently a shortage of 27,953 classrooms, and in primary education, approximately 7,491 classrooms are needed to achieve one classroom per class, meeting the requirement for two-session teaching per day.

The above statistics do not take into account the number of classes and classrooms that meet the prescribed student-to-teacher ratio.

In addition, statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training also show that there are currently nearly 6,500 classrooms that are borrowed or temporarily occupied from other agencies and units.

The country currently has over 618,000 classrooms at all levels of public preschool and primary education, of which 89.6% are structurally sound.

Facilities such as libraries, subject classrooms, offices, teacher housing, canteens, boarding houses, sanitation facilities, clean water, and teaching equipment have received investment, but there are still localized shortages in some areas.

The shortage of classrooms exists not only in mountainous, remote, and disadvantaged areas but also in areas experiencing rapid urbanization and large-scale migration. Specifically, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City still face this problem, especially given the changes following administrative boundary mergers.

According to Mr. Tran The Cuong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, in the 2025-2026 school year, Hanoi will build 43 new schools to improve the shortage of schools and classrooms in the area. However, Hanoi still has hotspots for enrollment at the beginning of the school year due to the rapid pace of urbanization.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, after the administrative boundary merger, Ho Chi Minh City has over 2.6 million students and is divided into 16 specialized clusters based on wards and communes. Investment in school construction continues with the goal of 300 classrooms per 10,000 people of school age to reduce class sizes.

According to Mr. Hieu, Ho Chi Minh City is pioneering the application of GIS maps in student enrollment, arranging students at the beginning of each school level based on distance from home to school to reduce traffic congestion. To implement this effectively, the school network must also adequately meet the demand.

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VINH HA

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/truoc-nam-hoc-moi-ca-nuoc-thieu-hang-chuc-ngan-phong-hoc-20250729180133261.htm