Nghe An: Over 900 schools meet national standards.

(Baonghean.vn) - To date, the entire province has more than 900 schools meeting national standards, with the percentage of schools meeting standards in the province being over 60%, higher than the national average.

Many bright spots

Ms. Ho Thi Nguong, Deputy Principal of Quynh Trang Kindergarten (Hoang Mai town), said: “Quynh Trang is a mountainous commune in Hoang Mai town, facing many difficulties. The biggest challenge is that the school has many scattered locations, poor transportation, and most students come from impoverished families, making it difficult to mobilize social resources for school construction... The lack of sufficient classrooms significantly affects the universalization of preschool education. In the past two years, the town government has invested more than 9 billion VND to rebuild the school. Currently, the school has enough classrooms to organize boarding for students, and the functional rooms also meet the requirements. The enrollment rate for 5-year-old children is 100%, and the quality of education and childcare has improved, meeting the requirements of a standard school.”

A spacious new classroom has recently been put into use at Quynh Trang Kindergarten.(Hoang Mai town).

Mr. Ho Sy Nam Thang, Deputy Head of the Education and Training Department, said: “After the separation, Hoang Mai town faced many difficulties in building standard schools, because more than 50% of the schools in the area are located in difficult mountainous communes. Furthermore, in the newly established town, the construction needs are high, but the budget is limited... To overcome these difficulties, Hoang Mai town encourages localities to proactively seek capital for school construction, calls for social mobilization, and creates mechanisms for businesses to invest. Therefore, after more than two years, tens of billions of VND have been invested in upgrading classrooms at Quynh Phuong B Primary School, Quynh Lien Primary School, Quynh Loc Kindergarten, Quynh Van B Kindergarten, etc.”

According to the town's plan, four more schools will be recognized as national standard schools in 2015 and 2016. The Town Party Committee has issued Directive 08 on strengthening the direction of national standard school construction. Accordingly, it requires communes and wards to develop plans for national standard schools, considering this a key task. At the same time, the town will allocate reasonable and balanced funding from communes and wards annually to focus on building and upgrading school facilities according to the national standard school orientation.

Nghia Tho Primary School (Nghia Dan District) receives the Certificate of Recognition for achieving National Standard Level 1.

“The construction of national standard schools not only gradually standardizes school facilities but, more importantly, has improved the effectiveness and efficiency of management and enhanced the overall quality of education for students. In particular, this initiative has fostered a sense of responsibility within the community in mobilizing resources to participate in the development of education and training,” affirmed Mr. Thai Huy Vinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training.

Challenges

In reality, for a province facing many difficulties like Nghe An, achieving a rate of over 60% of schools meeting national standards is a significant effort. To accomplish this task, many districts, cities, and towns have developed projects and plans to build schools that meet national standards, incorporating this into the key tasks of their socio-economic development plans. The province has also promptly issued many mechanisms and policies, allocating funds for the implementation of programs, objectives, and projects for educational development in the area, as well as mechanisms to support schools achieving national standards at all levels. Over the past five years, the total funds mobilized from the support of the people, businesses, organizations, and foreign projects for education and training amounted to 1,395.8 billion VND.

However, despite the achievements, the current process of building standard schools still faces many difficulties. Many schools that have met the standards have deteriorated and become damaged after a period of time, and according to the new criteria, they no longer meet the requirements. Furthermore, achieving 100% standard school status remains challenging.

Furthermore, the current teaching staff also struggles to meet the national standard criteria for schools. For example, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, preschools that organize two-session-per-day teaching and boarding must have a minimum of two teachers per class and a consistent teaching structure. Meanwhile, the province only allows a ratio of 1.5 preschool teachers per class, and in reality, districts only allocate 1.3 teachers per class. As a result, some schools, despite meeting all the standards, are not recognized because standard 2 has not been met.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, Director of the Department of Education and Training, stated: “Striving to achieve the standards of a national standard school is an essential task for every school and a foundation for sustainable development. In the future, to ensure the effectiveness of building standard schools, localities need to identify this as a key task in the field of socio-economic development, prioritizing budget allocation, capital, and mobilizing all resources and social forces to participate.”

My Ha