Nghia Dan: Maintain the scale of schools and classes, improve quality to meet standards

(Baonghean) - From the difficult beginnings of the early days of district separation, after nearly 10 years, Nghia Dan education has had extremely important changes.

Focus on infrastructure investment

Having the opportunity to inspect and evaluate educational conditions and criteria in localities, we felt the difficulties and efforts of the Party committees and authorities of communes and parents of Nghia Dan district in taking care of educational facilities.

In the early days of the district separation, not only the remote communes but also the farm communes and towns were in difficulty because the schools that had been invested in for a long time were now in a state of disrepair. Furthermore, according to the new regulations, to meet national standards, schools had to invest in more equipment and functional classrooms, which increased the difficulty in terms of facilities. In 2008, the whole district had only 14/69 schools, mainly kindergartens and primary schools that met national standards, the rest were far below standard.

Awarding and honoring officers and teachers with outstanding achievements in the 2016-2017 school year. Photo: Nguyen Hai

However, with the investment attention of the province and district, and the consensus of parents, the educational facilities in Nghia Dan have been gradually improved. On average, each year the district spends about 10 billion VND to upgrade schools and classrooms. In addition, through social activities, each year, schools mobilize an average of 8-10 billion VND to upgrade classrooms, equip additional equipment and functional rooms. In particular, in recent years, the district has mobilized an average of over 30 billion VND to build new and renovate dozens of classrooms...

Thanks to that, since 2010, more than 46 out of 69 schools have been recognized or re-recognized to meet national standards, of which 1/3 of the schools were re-recognized, and 2/3 were newly recognized; reaching a rate of 66.7%, higher than the average of the whole province.

Flag salute at the beginning of the week for students of Nghia Dan Town Primary School. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Caring for teachers, improving training quality

To improve the quality of mass and spearhead training, the Department of Education advises the district on many solutions to improve the quality of the teaching staff, from recruitment to enhancing training and coaching to improve professional qualifications. Strictly implement the assessment and classification of managers and teachers according to professional standards; at the same time, advise the district to arrange and assign teachers reasonably, with sufficient quantity, suitable to their capacity and qualifications.

Up to now, in addition to recruiting 63 more teachers, the district is strictly implementing the policy of rotating and transferring teachers and managers according to regulations; actively implementing the project of planning and training education staff in the new period; the plan for teaching and learning foreign languages ​​in the area... Currently, out of a total of 1,887 teachers and staff in the district, 100% of teachers from preschool to junior high school have met the standards, 100% of managers are above the standards and 86.3% of teachers are above the standards.

Delegates visited and assessed the national standards of Phu Tho Secondary School (Nghia Phu and Nghia Tho). Photo: Nguyen Hai

To improve the quality of mass education and complete universal education, the sector closely coordinates with the government and associations to organize Learning Promotion Month, Learning Promotion Tet, School Support, etc., implement the 3 enoughs (enough food, enough clothes and enough books), promptly encourage students, especially those in difficult circumstances to go to school, and limit the situation of students dropping out of school. In addition, responding to the School Milk program, Nghia Dan has actively implemented and has over 84% of preschool and primary school students participating, with a budget of over 8 billion VND.

Thanks to the attention and investment of the authorities at all levels and especially the advisory role of the education sector, the quality of education and training in the area has been significantly improved in recent years. Along with the achievement of 46/69 schools meeting national standards, of which 2/2 high schools met the standards and the town's primary school met the standards at level 2, in the 2016-2017 school year, 17 more schools were recognized as meeting educational quality standards, bringing the total number to 33 schools, accounting for 49.3%; in 2017, the district was recognized as a unit meeting the standards for illiteracy eradication, completing universal primary education level 3 2 years ahead of schedule; over 98% of students graduated from junior high school and high school; the average entrance score to grade 10 of high school reached 25.7 points, an increase of 2 points compared to the previous year.

Regarding key education, in the National High School Exam and University Entrance Exam, 5 students scored over 28 points; the whole district had 287 excellent students at the district level, 42 students achieved the title of excellent students at the provincial level and the provincial intellectual playground. With the above achievements, many collectives and individuals of the industry were awarded Emulation Flags and Certificates of Merit by the Government, the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Continue to innovate, improve the efficiency and quality of education

In addition to the achievements and advantages, entering the new school year 2017-2018, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Duc - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nghia Dan, the educational work of the district still has many concerns and worries. Currently, although the district has a high rate of schools meeting national standards compared to the average of the province and higher than some other districts, compared to the potential of a low mountainous district, it is still not commensurate. There are still 23 schools that have not met the standards, which means the pressure on resources for investment in infrastructure that the district will have to solve in the coming time.

Currently, the reality is that many schools are still lacking and degraded; some localities do not have enough classrooms to mobilize all 3-4 year old preschool children to attend classes according to demand; the system of national standard schools is always at risk of losing standards; the district still does not have a national standard level 2 preschool... In particular, Nghia Loc commune has not yet met the standards for universal preschool education, some localities have a low rate of mobilizing 3-4 year old students to kindergarten; the situation of studying in 2 shifts in Nghia Lam and Nghia Son communes still exists. In addition, the structure of the management staff and teachers is still inadequate, there are not many good teachers in the province; the preschool teaching staff is still lacking, the whole district is short of about 30 people and if they retire, there will be an average shortage of 3-4 teachers/school.

Demonstration lesson using innovative teaching methods at Nghia Dan Town Primary School. Photo: Nguyen Hai

Mr. Nguyen Van Duc - Head of the District Education and Training Department shared: Identifying the above difficulties and shortcomings, entering the new school year, the district education sector will focus and be determined to complete the assigned tasks. In the immediate future, the sector will follow the direction of the Standing Committee of the District Party Committee to focus on strengthening facilities to eliminate the situation of studying in two shifts this school year, overcoming the shortage of preschool teachers. In the long term, to maintain the quality of schools that have met the standards and further improve the quality and effectiveness of educational activities, the sector will accompany the locality to implement the roadmap for investing in educational facilities.

In the coming time, to mobilize social resources for infrastructure construction, the sector will focus on further promoting democratization in schools, enhancing the management and effective exploitation of social resources; striving to have 4 more schools meeting national standards in 2017-2018, 100% of schools self-assessing and 14 schools being assessed for educational quality accreditation.

Nguyen Hai