Coping with new regulations on subject classrooms

GD&TĐ - The facilities of many schools currently do not fully meet the requirements of Circular No. 14/2025/TT-BGDDT amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Regulations on subject classrooms of general education institutions.

Schools and teachers must manage to utilize and use existing classrooms and equipment to teach according to the 2018 General Education Program.

Lack of standard subject classrooms

Tuy Phuoc Secondary School (Tuy Phuoc, Gia Lai) has more than 1,500 students in 36 classes. According to Ms. Dang Thi Thu Huong - Principal, the school has invested in 2 IT rooms and 1 Natural Science room that meet the standards according to Circular No. 14/2025/TT-BGDDT (Circular 14). However, the Foreign Language and Art rooms still have to take advantage of classrooms, so the area is not guaranteed according to regulations.

“The facilities are still limited and do not meet the requirements of teaching two sessions a day, so the school has to divide the shift into morning and afternoon. However, the school is always flexible in overcoming the situation so that teaching and learning are not affected. In the future, the school hopes to invest in more multi-purpose halls, classrooms and subject rooms to ensure the quality of education ,” said Ms. Huong.

At Mang Canh Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Mang Den, Quang Ngai ), Principal Tran Thong said that the school currently has an IT room and an Art Education room. However, both rooms have not yet reached the minimum area as prescribed in Circular No. 14.

Specifically, the IT room is only about 40 square meters, while the minimum area for each student must be 1.5 square meters. With an average class size of 30 students, this standard has not been met. The Art Education Room, where Fine Arts and Music are taught, also has an area of ​​less than 60 square meters, so it is not guaranteed. For Foreign Languages, the school uses televisions in classrooms to organize teaching.

“The IT room currently has 20 computers, about 2 students have to share one device. If more computers are provided, the room area will not be enough. The school accepts that it is a bit more cramped than the regulations, but for schools in remote areas, having classrooms and equipment is a great advantage for teaching,” Mr. Thong shared.

According to statistics from the Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training, 100% of general schools in the province have been solidified. However, the rate of standard subject classrooms and functional rooms is still low; many places lack laboratory equipment, IT and foreign language equipment. In mountainous districts such as Nho Quan, many schools lack land to expand classroom space, and have to make use of multi-purpose rooms or temporarily borrow administrative rooms to organize practice.

Mr. Hoang Dai Hai - Principal of Thuong Hoa Secondary School (Thanh Son, Ninh Binh), shared: "We wish to have enough standard subject classrooms to organize more practice hours, but the biggest difficulty now is investment costs. The school can only make use of the multi-purpose room, but the maintenance and arrangement of the timetable often conflict."

Mr. Dao Quang Dien - Principal of Yen Tri Primary School (Yen Dong, Ninh Binh) frankly shared: "Although there have been subject rooms for many years, there are still shortcomings to meet the new standards. There are modern equipment but they are rarely used because teachers have not been trained, or there are no specialized staff to maintain them. This shows that, in addition to funding, human and management factors also determine the effectiveness of subject rooms."

Students in the English classroom of Nam Can Primary and Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Na Ngoi, Nghe An). Photo: Ho Lai

Operational Management

Loc Binh High School (Lang Son province) has 1,480 students in 36 classes, but only 26 classrooms. Due to the lack of classrooms, the school has to organize teaching in a combined form, and coordinate with Loc Binh Vocational Education and Continuing Education Center to borrow classrooms when necessary. Ms. Vi Thi Kim Thu - Principal of the school shared: "We have tried to cope with temporary solutions, but in the long term, we need systematic and synchronous investment in subject classrooms and modern equipment to meet the requirements of educational innovation."

Nguyen Dong Chi High School (Dong Kinh, Ha Tinh) has more than 800 students with 24 classes. The school currently has classrooms for subjects including: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Informatics and Social Sciences, ensuring a minimum area of ​​60m² according to regulations. In particular, the Physics, Chemistry and Biology rooms have adjacent warehouses to store and prepare teaching equipment, convenient for organizing practical lessons.

However, the school lacks some important subject classrooms such as English (which is shared with the IT room), Art and Music. Some classes exceed 40 students, making the learning space no longer meet the minimum standard of 2m²/student as prescribed.

Mr. Phan Duy Dien - Vice Principal of the school shared: "The biggest difficulty now is equipping equipment and practice tools. Many current equipment and chemicals have expired or are about to expire. Although we have registered to buy new ones, they are still not available, causing a significant impact on the teaching process according to the new General Education Program."

Cu Huy Can High School (Mai Hoa Commune) is one of the few high schools in Ha Tinh province that does not have a subject classroom. Mr. Kieu The Thanh - Head of the Physics - Chemistry - Biology Department, Cu Huy Can High School said: "The subjects in our department all require a lot of practice. But currently, due to the lack of subject classrooms, many lessons have to be conducted in normal classrooms. The small area and large number of students make teaching practice both ineffective and potentially unsafe."

According to Mr. Thanh, teaching equipment is not fully equipped and facilities are not synchronized, forcing many teachers to switch to using virtual experiments, simulation software and AI technology instead of real experiments.

“In Physics, practical lessons take up about 5-10% of the program time each year. But the classroom is cramped, with a class of more than 40 students, and we have to teach near other classes, so it is easy to make noise and affect each other. Last week, in the lesson on free fall acceleration, I had to use software and AI support instead of doing actual practice. In addition, because there is no dedicated warehouse, the equipment has to be kept in the practice room, so it is easy to lose and there is a potential risk of fire and explosion,” Mr. Thanh shared.

According to Mr. Tran Quoc Hoan - Principal of Cu Huy Can High School, for many years the school has sent a request to all levels and sectors for support in building department rooms. However, up to now the school still has to utilize the main classrooms to make department rooms.

The Principal of Cu Huy Can High School further proposed: To effectively implement the 2018 General Education Program, it is necessary to plan facilities and room areas suitable to the reality at educational institutions, invest in equipment, train teachers, have solutions for using equipment; manage timetables and student safety when studying in subject classrooms.

Computer room at Mang Canh Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities. Photo: Dung Nguyen

Synchronize facilities in a centralized and effective direction

Town 2 Secondary School, Van An Commune, Nghe An has more than 1,000 students, all studying in a 3-storey building built in 2019. Meanwhile, the other 2-storey classroom building is vacant, used as a parking lot for students and other school equipment.

According to Mr. Le Thanh Long - Principal, this 2-storey classroom block has been in use for more than 15 years, so some items are old, the area of ​​each room does not meet the new regulations. The school has proposed to the local government to renovate this classroom block to make some functional rooms and departments. On the one hand, it takes advantage of the existing facilities, saves the budget, on the other hand, it ensures comprehensive educational activities as well as teaching 2 sessions/day that the school is implementing.

Trung Phuc Cuong 2 Primary School (Thien Nhan, Nghe An) currently has 2 branches, with a total of 19 classes, of which branch 2 has only 7 classes. The facilities at branch 2 have enough classrooms but lack an English room, and the IT room does not have enough space. Meanwhile, branch 1 has focused on investing in full facilities into a unified complex from classrooms, functional rooms, multi-purpose halls, artificial football fields, outdoor libraries...

Ms. Le Thi Lan - Principal said that the school has developed a plan and the local government has agreed on the plan to merge the second branch in order to focus on investing in facilities and improving the quality of education. The merger creates conditions for all students of the school to fully participate in educational activities, as well as facilitate teachers of IT, English, and Music.

In the context of implementing a two-level government, the Nghe An Education sector also advised and recommended the Provincial People's Committee to direct departments, branches and localities to continue planning to allocate budget resources for investment in education in the period of 2026 - 2030 in a focused and key direction.

According to the leaders of the Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training, standardizing subject classrooms is a necessary step to improve the quality of education and create equal learning opportunities for students. However, the biggest difficulty is the limitation of financial resources, the new area standards require larger land funds, while many rural schools do not have the conditions to expand.

Another problem is the lack of specialized human resources to manage and operate subject classrooms. The Ninh Binh Department of Education recommends that the province continue to allocate priority budgets, while mobilizing the participation of businesses and social organizations in funding equipment and supporting maintenance. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen training for teachers and recruit specialized equipment staff to effectively exploit existing facilities.

In Lang Son, from 2021 to June 2025, the whole province has repaired and built 353 new schools with a total cost of more than 1,453 billion VND; at the same time, invested over 130 billion VND to equip teaching equipment. Thanks to that, the number of solid classrooms has increased by more than 6,000, including more than 1,600 subject classrooms, a significant increase compared to 2021.

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/xoay-xo-truoc-quy-dinh-moi-ve-phong-hoc-bo-mon-post748865.html