Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung periodically receives citizens in June 2022

Overview of the regular citizen reception session in June 2022 of the Provincial People's Committee Chairman Nguyen Duc Trung. Photo: Pham Bang

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee received Mr. Nguyen Dinh Danh and some citizens residing in Nguyet Bong hamlet, Ngoc Son commune, Thanh Chuong district.

These citizens reflected that the process of merging Ngoc Son Primary School was not public and democratic; it was not in line with the people's thoughts and aspirations and affected the future of students. At the same time, they recommended that the local government organize a dialogue, collect opinions from the people and parents, and allow the retention and construction of a new school at the old school.

Citizen Nguyen Dinh Danh (residing in Nguyet Bong hamlet, Ngoc Son commune, Thanh Chuong district) presents his reflection. Photo: Pham Bang

Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee Nguyen Van Chien said that the merger of schools and school sites in the district in the past time was carried out according to plan, on the basis of reviewing the scale of the infrastructure network, avoiding fragmentation and small-scale investment in resources. The majority of people agreed with the plan to merge schools and school sites in the district. However, there are still some people who do not agree because they are afraid of moving far away, do not want their children to go to other villages to study...

Ngoc Son Primary School has 3 campuses (Lam Son, Lam Thang, Thanh Nam). Thanh Nam campus is about 2km from Lam Son main campus, built in 1976, the facilities have degraded, not ensuring safety for teachers and students. Meanwhile, the main campus has built 5 classrooms, enough facilities to arrange study space for students. In addition, the distance from the residents' residence to the main campus is about 3km on average.

Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee Nguyen Van Chien reported to clarify the incident. Photo: Pham Bang

"The difficulties and problems that have occurred... leading to the failure to merge separate school locations as in the past are partly the responsibility of the locality in implementing the steps of the process in a methodical and unsmooth manner; propaganda work is still limited...", Thanh Chuong district leaders admitted, but affirmed that the school merger is to ensure the implementation of the teaching organization plan to ensure regulations and effectively implement the general education program.

The leaders of the Department of Education and Training also agreed that merging Thanh Nam campus into the main campus is appropriate, for the purpose of improving the quality of teaching and learning, for the safety of students' lives, in line with the general trend, and reducing the pressure on investment in facilities. At the separate campus, students do not have the required subject classrooms. Meanwhile, the facilities at the main campus are enough to provide 5 classrooms for students from Thanh Nam campus to transfer to.

Leaders of the Provincial Party Committee's Mass Mobilization Commission gave their opinions on how to resolve the incident. Photo: Pham Bang

Concluding the citizen reception session, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung emphasized that the policy of merging satellite schools into main schools is correct and has been implemented in many localities across the province and the country. The purpose is to concentrate students, ensure that students have adequate learning conditions and reduce fragmentation and small-scale; create conditions for allocating resources to carry out educational and training tasks.

On the other hand, Thanh Nam school is currently degraded, not ensuring safety for students; does not meet the conditions to organize the implementation of the new general education program because there are no functional classrooms. However, we also sympathize with the people because most of them are in difficult circumstances, parents work far away, grandparents are old and weak, so taking their children to school is more difficult.

Comprehensively analyzing the factors leading to people's disagreement, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee said that the methods and implementation roadmap of Thanh Chuong district and Ngoc Son commune are still limited. It is impossible to use the reason that the district is implementing isolation according to Directive 16 to justify not disseminating and propagating the merger policy and plan so that people know and implement it.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung concluded the meeting. Photo: Pham Bang

"This is an issue that the district and commune need to frankly acknowledge and learn from. We must ensure that each policy and guideline of the Party and State, when implemented in practice, ensures the legitimate rights of the people and is supported and agreed upon by the people," said the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

In the coming time, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung requested the Chairman of the Thanh Chuong District People's Committee to directly dialogue, listen to people's opinions and resolve issues related to the policy and implementation plan for the school merger; report the results to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee before July 15. At the same time, organize a review of the responsibilities of the leaders of the Ngoc Son Commune People's Committee and the District Department of Education and Training.

Sharing the concerns of citizens, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung asked citizens to remain calm, be open-minded and cooperate with the government in organizing the school merger. Issues that people are still concerned about and unsatisfied with can be discussed with the government to find a common voice with the highest goal of ensuring the best conditions for children to study./.