Many problems in building national standard schools in Nghe An

Struggling to keep up

Since 2009, Hanh Thiet Secondary School has been one of the earliest schools to be recognized as a National Standard School of the district.Kwai ChauIn 2018, the school was re-recognized as a standard school, but after more than 10 years, the school's facilities have degraded significantly, affecting the organization of teaching and learning.

In particular, because the scale of the school has changed a lot, the current number of classrooms in the school is not enough to arrange classes. Currently, the school has to convert some functional classrooms to classrooms for students and the school still lacks multi-function rooms, English rooms and some other subject rooms.

Students of Hanh Thiet Secondary School (Quy Chau). Photo: MH

In addition, the school currently has a two-story classroom block built in front for students to study according to the new school program (VNEN) and each classroom area is only 35 m.².

However, this area is currently too small to accommodate students and does not meet the new standard school regulations (requiring about 67 m).²/classroom).

From the next school year, the comprehensive general education program will be implemented for secondary schools, but with current conditions, schools are having difficulty organizing teaching and learning activities.

According to the survey, to rebuild the school, the school needs to invest about 10 billion VND, but the local budget is still facing many difficulties and the mobilization of social resources from students is still limited.

Nguyen Thi Xuan - Principal of Hanh Thiet Secondary School (Quy Chau)

This school year, Nghi Quang Primary School (Nghi Loc) has just been recognized.standard schoolafter many efforts of local authorities.

Coming to school at this time, it is clear to see the remarkable change when the school is invested in spaciousness, the school campus is beautifully cared for, and students are able to study all the required subjects.

Recess of students at Nghi Quang Primary School (Nghi Loc). Photo: My Ha

However, teacher Vo Thi Dong Xuan - Principal of the school admitted: "We were fortunate to be recognized as a standard school before Circular 13/2020/TT-BGDDT promulgating regulations on standards of facilities for kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, and high schools was issued.

If we follow the current regulations, it will be very difficult because the school's facilities were built many years ago and have only been upgraded in the later period. Meanwhile, the new regulations on classroom area are very difficult and schools will certainly find it difficult to meet them. In addition, the school is still lacking teachers according to the regulations."

Difficulties with new regulations

For many years, Quy Chau district has been one of the bright spots of the province in building national standard schools and is the top of the mountainous districts with a rate of nearly 90%. However, this rate may change as this school year the district has 8 schools that must be re-recognized as standard schools but are all facing difficulties due to inadequate facilities.

Playground of Chau Hoi 1 Primary School students (Quy Chau). Photo: My Ha

Teacher Nguyen Thi Binh - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Quy Chau district shared: "All schools must be re-evaluated, the facilities are degraded, there is a lack of classrooms, a lack of subject rooms and the area of ​​the classrooms does not meet the regulations. For example, Chau Binh Secondary School, in 2019, the school was destroyed by a tornado. However, the locality currently does not have the capital to rearrange it."

Regarding the recognition of standard schools, the criteria on facilities will be applied according to Circular 13/2020/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training, which was newly issued at the end of May 2020. However, according to these regulations, it is very difficult to implement and the number of schools that meet the set criteria can be counted on the fingers.

The old classrooms of Quynh Hau Secondary School (Quynh Luu) are difficult to meet the new criteria. Photo: My Ha

After studying the new regulations, teacher Pham Anh Minh - Principal of Quynh Hau Secondary School (Quynh Luu) said: "All the criteria, if applied to our school, are not feasible. For example, the current regulations require the area of ​​each classroom to reach 1.5 m²/students/class, but all the classrooms of the school were built a long time ago and now cannot be expanded or repaired. Or the regulation of functional rooms such as multi-function rooms, IT classrooms, subject reading rooms and the area must be nearly 80 m²We don't have any, except to combine 2 rooms into 1. Meanwhile, mobilizing the budget to build a new one is very difficult."

Up to now, the whole province has more than 1,100 schools meeting national standards, reaching a rate of over 73%, exceeding the target set by the Provincial Party Congress for the 2015-2020 term. However, besides the achieved results, the work of building standard schools and re-recognizing standard schools still faces many difficulties.

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, this school year, the whole province still has about 100 schools that need to be re-evaluated and from now until the end of the year, investing in facilities, purchasing equipment, and arranging enough teachers will still be a difficult problem for schools.

Previously, regarding the construction of standard schools, Director of the Department of Education and Training Thai Van Thanh also said: “The implementation has many difficulties due to some obstacles and shortcomings in the circulars and instructions. For example, according to Circular 17/2018/TT-BGDDT, primary schools with 30 or more classes will not meet national standard schools, while currently, there are many primary schools with more than 30 classes. Or a kindergarten that meets national standards at level 2 has no more than 20 groups or classes per school, but in reality, there are many units with more than 20 groups or classes.

The standard school regulations also require that primary schools must have an IT room that meets teaching and learning requirements. This requirement is difficult to implement for schools in remote areas, areas with particularly difficult conditions, and especially schools without electricity.

In addition, many localities in the province are currently seriously lacking IT teachers, so organizing teaching and learning is still not feasible. In addition, because the Education sector is streamlining its staff, schools currently do not have office teams; teachers and staff are still lacking compared to the regulations of each level of education, so many schools do not meet the prescribed criteria.

Investing in building standard schools will create conditions for schools to improve teaching quality and implement skills lessons. Photo: MH

In addition, the State's regulations on not collecting construction fees but only funding sources mean that schools do not have funds to build, purchase equipment, maintain and repair facilities to achieve and maintain national standard schools.

The above difficulties are also the challenges of Nghe An Education sector in the coming period and to achieve the set goals, there must be synchronous solutions and the participation of all levels, sectors, local authorities and the people.