Schools in Nghe An have to teach in two shifts because of too many classes and not enough rooms.

School in trouble

In late August, teachers at Quynh Phuong Secondary School (Quynh Mai Commune, former Hoang Mai Town) were busy cleaning and renovating a dilapidated row of houses to prepare rooms for students in time for the new school year. “Nothing in this school meets standards, only the teachers meet training standards,” said Mr. Ho Tuan Anh, Principal of Quynh Phuong Secondary School.

In the 2025-2026 school year, Quynh Phuong Secondary School has up to 1,800 students, making it the third-largest secondary school in Nghe An province, behind only Ha Huy Tap Secondary School and Hung Dung Secondary School (formerly Vinh City). Because the number of students is too large, while the number of classrooms is insufficient, the school has always had to organize two shifts. This is one of the few schools in Nghe An province that still has to teach in this form.

Quynh Phuong Secondary School currently has 2 two-story buildings, one of which was built in 2006 and the other in 2015. However, the two high-rise buildings only have 22 rooms, 5 of which must be arranged for functional rooms such as the library, computer science, etc. Therefore, the number of solid classrooms for students is only 17.

“Last school year, our school had 34 classrooms, which was enough to teach two shifts. 17 classes of grades 6 and 9 studied in the morning, while the afternoon was reserved for grades 7 and 8. But this school year, the number of students increased significantly, so we had to arrange them into 38 classrooms. Therefore, we are still short of 4 classrooms,” said teacher Ho Tuan Anh.

Therefore, the school is having to clean up the old, seriously degraded building to have enough classrooms for students to enter the new school year.

Due to the lack of rooms, Quynh Phuong Secondary School has not been able to arrange practice rooms for students. There is also no multi-purpose hall, music room, art room, medical room, etc. like other schools. “According to the standards, the school must have 4 science practice rooms alone, but here there are none. Therefore, it greatly affects the quality of teaching and learning. Students cannot practice properly, and have to make do with outdoor lessons. Without practice, teachers have to teach by rote,” added Principal Ho Tuan Anh.

On exam days, students are divided into small classes. Without enough rooms, the school has to arrange for hundreds of students to take the exam and cram into the garage. In addition, organizing two shifts also makes it difficult for the school to organize teacher meetings. Accordingly, on average, the school has nearly 10 meetings each month, from professional meetings to Party activities. However, because teachers have to teach two shifts and have a full schedule all week, there is not a single day when all teachers in the school are free to organize meetings.

“We have to arrange every Wednesday afternoon to teach only 2 periods and then give students a day off for teachers to meet. But we have to make up for it on other days of the week,” said the principal of Quynh Phuong Secondary School.

Waiting wearily

Similarly in Quynh Mai, Quynh Lap Secondary School (Tan Mai Ward) is also facing difficulties due to lack of classrooms before the new school year begins. According to the reporter's records, this school has a 2-storey building, newly built in 2009 and 2017 with a total of 26 rooms. However, currently 9 of those rooms have to be arranged for functional rooms such as IT, practice... Therefore, the number of classrooms for students is only 17.

“Last school year, we had more than 1,000 students in 23 classes. Therefore, we had to make use of the functional rooms to be able to arrange enough classrooms for one shift. But this school year, the number of students increased by 200, bringing the total number of classes to 27. And all the rooms, including the functional rooms, only have 26, which cannot be used anymore. Therefore, the school had to switch to teaching 2 shifts like in Quynh Phuong, grades 6 and 9 study in the morning, while grades 7 and 8 switch to studying in the afternoon,” said Mr. Ngo Van Binh - Principal of Quynh Lap Secondary School.

According to Mr. Binh, in previous school years, to have enough classrooms for one shift, the school used functional rooms, which made the students suffer. "Actually, if we had to study in one shift, the teachers and the school would be fine. But by using rooms like that, the students would also suffer because there were no functional rooms," Mr. Binh said, adding that it is expected that in the next 5 years, the school will continue to have hundreds of students each year. Therefore, the problem of classrooms becoming more and more overloaded.

“We have also just submitted a proposal to the Tan Mai ward government to soon have a new construction project to have enough classrooms for the following school years. This school year, we will definitely have to teach two shifts,” Mr. Binh added.

The principal of Quynh Phuong Secondary School said that, similar to Quynh Lap, the number of students in Quynh Phuong will continue to increase in the coming years. “It is expected that in the coming years, the number of secondary school students in Quynh Phuong will exceed 2,000 students, possibly up to 44 classes. By that time, it is certain that even taking advantage of the old level 4 buildings will not be enough. Therefore, we request that all levels pay attention and soon implement the project to build more classrooms,” said Mr. Ho Tuan Anh, adding that nearly 10 years ago, when he took up his duties at the school, the school and parents had repeatedly requested to build more classrooms. By 2019, the project was approved but construction has not yet begun.

Discussing this issue, a leader of the old Hoang Mai town said that before implementing the two-level government, the old Hoang Mai town government also established a project to build new blocks of houses at Quynh Lap Secondary School as well as Quynh Phuong. However, when the project had not yet been implemented, the implementation of the two-level government, the communes and wards merged, so it was temporarily suspended.