Director of Department of Education and Training points out shortcomings and solutions for building national standard schools

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Chairman of the Provincial People's Council chaired the question and answer session. Photo: Nguyen Nguyen

Exist in building standard schools

Question and answer session on the afternoon of December 12, the issue questioned by the Provincial People's Council delegates was related to construction quality.national standard school.

Delegate Cao Thi Thuy (Dien Chau district) questioned and requested the Director of the Department of Education and Training to inform about the current status of the quality of building national standard schools in the province; in reality, there are schools that have been recognized but still "owe" some criteria and what are the solutions to overcome these shortcomings in the coming time?

Responding to the issue raised by the People's Council delegate,Director of Department of Education and TrainingThai Van Thanh affirmed that building national standard schools has a very important role and meaning such as improving the quality of education; helping the management of school principals to be disciplined, stable, have a long-term vision, meet the requirements of both immediate and long-term tasks; helping teaching and learning in schools to innovate, promote students' capacity, improve teaching and learning efficiency; creating an educational environment in schools to ensure safety, friendliness, and health; at the same time contributing to enriching and diversifying cultural institutions in the community.

Delegate Cao Thi Thuy (Dien Chau district) questioned the Director of the Department of Education and Training about the quality of building national standard schools. Photo: Thanh Cuong

Clearly identifying the importance of building national standard schools, over the past time,Department of Education and Trainingadvised the Provincial People's Committee to approve the planning of the school and class system in the province associated with the construction of national standard schools with specific solutions.

As a result, at the end of the 2020 - 2025 term, the rate of schools meeting national standards in the province reached 72.46%, exceeding the target set by the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress of 70%; there were 198 schools meeting level 2 standards, accounting for more than 12%.

Besides positive results, Director Thai Van Thanh also admitted that the work of recognizing schools as meeting national standards has some shortcomings and limitations.

Specifically, in a national standard school, there are two tasks: assessing the quality of national standard schools and recognizing national standard schools; only after the quality assessment is completed will the national standard school be recognized.

Before 2018, these two contents were carried out independently, so when inspecting, localities could owe planning criteria on area or multi-purpose classrooms or subject classrooms, libraries to complete within 6 months or 1 year.

Director of the Department of Education and Training Thai Van Thanh answered questions from the Provincial People's Council delegates. Photo: Thanh Cuong

However, when the accreditation was recognized and the school was later recognized as meeting national standards, some localities did not focus on completing the "debt" of the missing criteria, leading to some shortcomings as reflected by the Provincial People's Council delegates.

From the above shortcomings, in 2019, the Ministry of Education and Training issued 3 new circulars related to the work of building standard schools at each level, integrating both quality assessment and recognition of national standard schools into one, so the recognition of national standard schools is more systematic, there is no longer a situation of "owing" criteria in building standard schools.

The purpose and meaning of building a school that meets national standards is to create a safe, friendly, and healthy educational environment in the school. Illustration: Mai Hoa

3 difficulties in building national standard schools

Director of the Department of Education and Training Thai Van Thanh also pointed out 3 difficulties in building schools that meet national standards. First, the awareness of the meaning, value and importance of building schools that meet national standards in improving the quality of education, meeting the requirements of innovation, international integration, and meeting the requirements of the 4.0 revolution is not really uniform among the team of managers, teachers and other social forces.

Second, investment resources for building standard schools are limited. For example, to build a national standard school in a systematic way, it is necessary to have a multi-purpose classroom with about 2-3 billion, while the local budget and social mobilization are difficult.

Thirdly, due to the high increase in the number of students in recent years, there have been years when the number of students has increased dramatically to 17,000 students at all levels; therefore, student forecasting is very difficult. This affects the construction of standard schools, because new schools are not built, leading to the need to increase the number of classes/school and the number of students/class, which according to regulations, a national standard school at the primary level must not exceed 30 classes; if it exceeds, it will not be recognized as a standard school. According to this regulation, many schools in Vinh city have difficulty meeting national standards.

Preschool education environment in Thanh Chuong district. Photo: Mai Hoa

5 specific solutions

According to the Director of the Department of Education and Training, in order to effectively implement the program of building national standard schools, it is necessary to continue to strengthen communication work, raise awareness for management staff, teachers, local Party committees, authorities and people about the meaning and importance of building national standard schools, in order to build a good educational environment, contribute to building quality human resources, meet the requirements of socio-economic development of the province, worthy of Nghe An learning land.

Monday, linking the construction of national standard schools with the construction of new rural areas and the movement of the whole people uniting to build a cultural life, building cultural institutions in the community to integrate resources.

Tuesday,Pay attention to training, fostering, improving the capacity and quality of management staff and teachers and staff in schools.

Wednesday, build an internal quality assurance system, which means building a department to advise, urge, and promote school members to fully and qualitatively implement the school standard criteria, and also self-assess and inspect to ensure that the criteria are implemented with quality and sustainability.

Thursdayis to build a system of conditions to improve the effectiveness of the work of building national standard schools, such as a strict evaluation process, linking emulation and reward work; a friendly cultural working environment in schools and mobilizing resources from the budget and socialization to build standard schools.