The monitoring delegation of Nghe An Provincial People's Council worked with the Department of Education and Training on planning the school and class network.

Arrange to reduce 31 public schools

At the meeting, Director of the Department of Education and Training Thai Van Thanh reported to the Provincial People's Council's supervision delegation on the planning and arrangement of the school and class network at Nghe An educational institutions for the period 2021 - 2025, clarifying the scale of Nghe An's school and class network.

Specifically, the province currently has a total of 1,507 general schools and kindergartens (including 84 non-public schools, an increase of 6 schools compared to the 2020-2021 school year); 19 vocational and continuing education centers; 1 continuing education and career guidance center; 1 continuing education center; 412 commune-level community learning centers. There are 6 universities and 35 vocational education institutions.

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During the 2020-2021 and 2024-2025 school years, Nghe An will merge and reduce 31 public schools; 200 public preschool and general school locations; reduce 1 provincial center; reduce 13 vocational training institutions; merge Nghe An Pedagogical College into Nghe An University of Economics and change its name to Nghe An University.

Nghe An is a pioneer province in implementing the 2018 general education program with many school models and educational activities, creating fundamental and comprehensive innovation breakthroughs, developing learners' qualities and capacities.

Nghe An is the first province in the country to issue three specific policies and guidelines for educational development; to build and effectively implement a number of models, such as the model of ensuring the quality of general education facilities; the model of coordinating families, schools and communities in caring for and educating students; the model of high-quality key schools, and the new-style ethnic boarding schools.

Nghe An is also a province that proactively deploys and promotes digital transformation, creating breakthroughs in educational innovation; including applying the IOC system in educational management and applying artificial intelligence (AI) in management and teaching.

In the period of 2020 - 2025, the Nghe An Education and Training sector has also made efforts to complete and exceed the targets of the Resolution of the 19th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress with the expected rate of schools meeting national standards by 2025 being over 80% (congress target 78%). The quality of comprehensive and key education continues to improve.

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In the 2024 high school graduation exam results, Nghe An ranked 12th out of 63 provinces and cities, up 22 places compared to 2021; among the top in the country in terms of quality of excellent students with a total of 5 Gold Medals, 9 Silver Medals, 5 Bronze Medals at regional and international levels; 355 students won national excellent student awards, including 28 first prizes.

Nghe An students also actively participate and affirm their abilities at national and international competitions, such as the TIMO International Math Olympiad; the "Science and Technology Olympiad and International Conference on Creative Scientific Works"; the INTARG International Science and Technology Invention Competition; the "Youth Study and Follow Ho Chi Minh's Thought, Ethics and Style" Competition...

In addition to the bright spots, Director of the Department of Education and Training Thai Van Thanh also pointed out some difficulties and limitations. That is, despite many efforts to reorganize, there are still many separate preschool and primary schools in the province, affecting investment in facilities, equipment and limited educational environment. The quality of education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, especially in English and information technology, is limited...

Scientific and technological research activities; entrepreneurship education, participation in digital transformation and the 4.0 industrial revolution for students of educational and training institutions are not commensurate with the scale and potential for economic and social development and international integration.

Based on the report of the Director of the Department of Education and Training, together with the practice of monitoring and supervising general education, vocational education, and university education activities; members of the Provincial People's Council's monitoring delegation raised many issues.

For example, the arrangement and reduction of public schools and satellite schools have affected the right to access education of learners in remote areas as well as the need for facilities and equipment. Orientation for planning, arrangement and improvement of the quality of vocational education to overcome the current situation of dispersion of training facilities and limitations in the quality of teachers, facilities and training equipment, especially the quality and quantity of training that do not meet the needs of human resources for the province and the whole country...

Members of the monitoring delegation are also interested in the plan to arrange the network of schools and classrooms and decentralize the management of the teaching staff when implementing a two-level government and abolishing the district-level administrative unit.

Giving opinions at the meeting, comrade Nguyen Nhu Khoi - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council raised concerns and requested the Department of Education and Training to research and improve the quality and effectiveness of vocational education, becoming a center for vocational education in the North Central region, meeting the needs of human resources in the province; pay attention to improving the quality of foreign language and information technology education in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; strengthen scientific research in schools, and apply research to serve socio-economic development as well as people's lives.

The Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also requested the Department of Education and Training to proactively research and propose plans to use the facilities of commune headquarters when implementing the merger, to build public housing for teachers and boarding houses for students.

Proactively review and complete school and class network planning

Concluding the meeting, Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council highly appreciated the proactive advice and proposals for the province to issue many policies and strategies to promote the development of education and training, associated with proactive innovation, creativity, and improvement of the quality and effectiveness of educational management of the Department of Education and Training.

The Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council also pointed out a number of shortcomings and limitations that the Nghe An Education and Training sector needs to study and propose solutions to overcome related to the situation of local teacher surplus and shortage between levels, subjects and localities; security and safety in schools, school violence, life skills education for students. There have been many synchronous solutions in the organization and implementation, however, school violence and drowning still occur...

Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh also oriented a number of tasks; the focus is to continue reviewing, supplementing, amending, and perfecting the planning of the school network, classrooms of the general and preschool system, vocational education, and higher education. On the basis of closely following the planning and policies of the Central and the province, meeting the requirements of innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, and ensuring national and international standards.

The requirement is also to ensure compliance with the policy of arranging commune-level administrative units. Along with that, issue a plan to implement the planning of the school and class network; mobilize maximum resources from the Central's special policies for Nghe An and integrate national target programs and socialized resources to realize the plans; in which, select investments with focus and key points...

Continue to review the policies and guidelines of the Central and the province related to education and training to advise and effectively implement.

In education and training, focus on comprehensive education, improve the quality of mass education and key education; pay attention to general education, vocational education, and university education in the integration trend. Besides taking care of cultural education, it is necessary to focus on life skills education for students; strengthen links with foreign training institutions and businesses to improve the quality and effectiveness of education and training.

Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Nam Dinh also requested the Department of Education and Training to proactively research and propose the province to issue mechanisms and policies to serve the development of education and training; in which attention should be paid to replicating boarding and semi-boarding school models in ethnic minority and mountainous areas...