The difficulties of schools lacking classrooms in Nghe An
(Baonghean) - For many years now, the shortage of classrooms has been occurring in many schools in Nghe An province. There, the investment and construction of schools and classrooms has encountered many difficulties and obstacles for many different reasons...
Waiting... for the project
Located in the city center and a school with stable quality for many years, but up to now, Truong Thi Primary School (Vinh City) has not met the standards compared to the set goals. The main reason for this situation is that the school does not have enough campus area and classrooms are seriously lacking. For example, in the 2018-2019 school year, the school has over 1,300 students with 35 classes but currently has only 25 classrooms, students of all grades have to take turns taking leave from school, which is very difficult.
For many years, the school has been using four attics, which were originally designed as toilets, as classrooms for students. In these classrooms, although each class has nearly 40 students, the total area of each room is only about 20m2.2- less than half of the proposed area. The area is small, so despite the school's efforts, it can only fit two rows of desks, and the teacher's walkway is only less than 3 hand spans wide. While students have to squeeze in every time they walk, teachers cannot organize group activities in the classroom...
 |
| The IT lab at Truong Thi Primary School (Vinh City) is cramped because it takes advantage of attic rooms. Photo: My Ha |
Because the physical conditions of these classrooms are too degraded, to reassure parents, the school always gives special priorities such as allocating funds to install air conditioners for students, and assigning experienced and reputable teachers to be homeroom teachers. However, because the classes are too small, these classrooms can only be organized for students in grades 1 and 2.
“The school does not have the conditions to build a standard school, to evaluate and assess quality. Next school year, due to the increase in students, the school is lacking 3 more classrooms. Therefore, even if we organize rotating classes, how to arrange them is still a very difficult problem...”.
Previously, the project to expand Truong Thi Primary School was implemented in 2003 and the overall planning was approved by the Provincial People's Committee. However, after more than 15 years, the project is still at a standstill due to difficulties in site clearance. Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Tat Thien - Chairman of Truong Thi Ward People's Committee said that the electricity board housing area (former Electricity Company) has 26 households, but currently only 23 households have agreed to the compensation plans. The remaining households have not accepted to relocate for various reasons such as not agreeing with the compensation area, not agreeing with the resettlement land location arranged by the city or not agreeing with the plans that the city has built for the entire residential area... Also for these reasons, at this time, although the construction investment plan has been approved with an investment cost of 37 billion VND, the project still cannot be implemented. |
| The narrow entrance to Quynh Lap Kindergarten (Hoang Mai Town). Photo: MH |
As for Quynh Lap Kindergarten, although it is one of the schools with the largest number of students in Hoang Mai town, the school has almost no entrance. Every day, hundreds of parents and students of the school have to go back and forth in a narrow and stuffy passage less than 1 meter wide. Previously, a project to renovate and expand the school was also built and according to the plan, 8 new classrooms would be built. However, because the commune budget is facing many difficulties and the people have not agreed, the site clearance has not been completed yet.
For many years now, teachers and students have only wished for a school yard large enough for the children to organize extracurricular activities and for students from the whole commune to study at one place, avoiding the current situation of having to study in cultural houses in three places... Every year at the beginning of the new school year, the principal is sued by parents for not arranging for children from the commune to study.
"No one cries for a common father"In 2005, due to the decreasing population in the area, 3 secondary schools in Hung Xa, Hung Lam, Hung Xuan communes (Hung Nguyen) were merged into Hung Xuan Secondary School with the new name Nguyen Bieu Secondary School. According to the set goal, the merger will create conditions for investment in facilities, teaching equipment and is a condition to improve the quality of teaching and learning.
However, after 13 years, the implementation seems to be increasingly difficult as the scale of schools and classes is increasing, the demand for teaching and learning is increasing but the investment in construction is increasingly narrowing. For many years, the Hung Nguyen district government has also included in the planning to build Nguyen Bieu Secondary School to meet national standards. However, it has had to be "raised up and put down" many times, because the school is lacking 8 functional classrooms, especially subject rooms for practicing subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Technology.
 |
| Foreign language practice room of Nguyen Bieu Secondary School (Hung Nguyen). Photo: MH |
To build 8 more classrooms, Mr. Thai Huy Hoa - Principal of the school said that 5 - 6 billion VND is needed. According to the principal, this amount of money is not too much. The school has made plans many times and held meetings with the authorities of the 3 communes of Hung Xa, Hung Lam, Hung Xuan many times, but the plan of which commune will invest and how much to invest has not been approved yet.
“We are in a situation of “illegitimate children” and “no one cries for a common father” because each commune has its own “reason” for not investing in the school. Because if Hung Xuan invests, it will be said to invest for children of other communes to study. The other two communes also give similar reasons.”
The push and pull between the three communes is not yet known when it will be resolved, but the education of the children in the three communes is clearly affected. Here, due to the lack of practice rooms, students studying Physics and Chemistry, instead of doing experiments, are only allowed to learn simulations. The English classroom, although fully equipped with modern facilities such as projectors and headphones, is difficult to achieve because there are too many students and the classroom is small. The IT equipment has only 20 computers, while the demand for use is always double...
 |
| A standard secondary school classroom. Photo: EDU |
The lack of classrooms, students having to study in borrowed or temporary rooms also happens in many other schools across the province. This has also affected the improvement of teaching and learning quality, organizing extracurricular activities, and teaching life skills. This is also a big disadvantage for students, although this is a minimum need and they deserve to enjoy, be cared for and invested in.
