School struggles to claim land for teachers
After dozens of working sessions, with the participation of many agencies and departments, up to now, Nghe An Province Ethnic Boarding High School has not been able to take back the land it lent to teachers for construction. In addition, many other schools in the province are also in a similar situation.
Deadlock at the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities
In early January 2025, the high-rise building of the projectDormitory construction of the Provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic MinoritiesWorkers are still completing the final stages of the project. This project is behind schedule because 5 families of teachers from the school borrowed land and borrowed the school's dormitory to live in, but then refused to return it to hand over the site.
It was not until July 2024, after much work, that 4 households agreed to return the land. At this time, the construction unit had the land to build the building. However, until now, there is still 1 household that refuses to return the land, causing the construction of the power station to still not be able to be built. That is the case of Mr. Nguyen Van Ky.
The journey to reclaim land from teachers of the provincial Ethnic Boarding High School began in 2019. At that time, after receiving funding, the school's leaders worked with 5 households, asking them to move within 1 year so that the school could clear the land to build a dormitory for students as committed in the loan contract. At that time, only 1 household had no opinion. The remaining households asked for 3 years to arrange to move. The school agreed to the 3-year period.
According to the reporter’s investigation, the incident began in 2006, when the school lent 3 teachers’ dormitories and 2 other families land within the school grounds to build houses. The loan contract also clearly stated that these 5 teachers had to commit to “not expanding beyond the designated area; The period of use is until the school has a need, then at least 12 months’ notice is given so that the families can find a place to live…”.
However, during their stay, many households violated their contract commitments by renovating and expanding beyond the borrowed area without permission from the school. After that, some people, even though they retired and returned to their hometowns 15 years ago, and some had built their own houses outside for a long time, still refused to return the dormitory to the school.
In October 2023, the project started but 5 households still refused to hand over the site for construction. The construction unit had to send many documents to the investor complaining about the delay in handing over the site, causing workers to wait for work and the risk of having their investment capital cut off due to slow progress. After many meetings and campaigns, 4 households have agreed to move.
Previously, after these teachers' households complained for compensation, the provincial People's Committee leaders repeatedly received citizens and responded in writing stating: "There is no basis for settlement and the conditions for compensation, support, and resettlement are not met according to the law." At the same time, they requested that the households promptly hand over the land so that Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School can implement the project on schedule.
Besides,Provincial Inspectoratealso got involved and concluded that the entire land area used by Mr. Nguyen Van Ky and 4 other teachers was originally lent by the provincial Ethnic Boarding High School to build houses since 2006, located entirely within the school's land plot...
“In the project design, that location is a power station, so sooner or later we will have to reclaim the land to build a power station for the school. We are out of options, now we can only rely on the authorities,” said a school leader.
“It happened a long time ago so it's hard to handle”
Not only the provincial Boarding High School for Ethnic Minorities, many schools in Nghe An province are also facing similar land grabbing. Specifically, Phu Son Primary School (Tan Ky district), was decided by the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee to cut 20m2The school's land was given to a commune official to build a grocery store. The store was located right in the center of the commune, behind the school and in front of the commune People's Committee headquarters. Later, this family encroached on more of the school's land to build a high-rise building, increasing the total area to more than 150m2.2Not to mention, this family also received compensation for land clearance with an area of more than 60m2.2 on this plot of land.
In 2018, after many complaints from the people, the People's Committee of Tan Ky district concluded that the decision to cut off the land of the Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Son commune was beyond his authority. At the same time, it was determined that the family of the commune official had encroached on the school's land. However, up to now, no form of handling has been given.
“The incident happened a long time ago so it is difficult to handle. We may soon ask for the opinion of the District People's Committee,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Dung - Chairman of the People's Committee of Phu Son commune.
At Do Luong 1 High School (Da Son Commune, Do Luong District), many years ago, a school security guard borrowed a small plot of land next to the school gate to sell sugarcane juice. Every year, this person pays the school 500,000 VND in fees. However, somehow, the security guard's family was later granted a land use right certificate for this location without the school knowing. "We also want to claim it back, but now that they have been granted a red book, we have to give up," said the school leader.
At Ha Huy Tap High School (Vinh City), although he has been retired for 15 years, a teacher still refuses to return the dormitory to the school. Recently, he has arbitrarily renovated and expanded the area, hanging a sign for rent. From a dormitory of only about 40m2Currently, the area of the house he is using is up to nearly 90m2.2, with a width of nearly 13m on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street.
After Nghe An Newspaper reported, we invited the teacher to work and once again confirmed that the dormitory is the school's property, requesting that the teacher not rent it out. We can only ask the teacher to find a place to live soon, to hand over the dormitory to the school. Because the school actually needs that space to build a parking lot for students. The school is also in a difficult position. In the near future, we will petition the authorities to handle the matter.
Mr. Cao Thanh Bao - Principal of Ha Huy Tap High School
