Quynh Luu is the first and last in building national standard schools.

On the afternoon of October 31, the Provincial People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs Committee had a meeting with the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district according to the program of supervising the construction of national standard schools in the province. Comrade Nguyen Thi Thu Huong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department, Head of the Culture and Social Affairs Committee chaired the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

Bad debt

In the morning, the Provincial People's Council's Culture and Social Affairs Committee conducted supervision of the construction of standard schools at a number of schools in the area. Through the supervision, the issue that the supervision team was most concerned about was the lack of facilities for the campus, playground, and training ground.

For example, at Quynh Luu 1 High School, at the time of being recognized as meeting standards in 2018, it owed money for area, but has not yet paid the debt, although at this time the school has expired its standard period and is in the process of continuing to complete the assessment to re-recognize the standard school.

Currently, Quynh Luu 1 High School has nearly 1,700 students but the total campus area is only 15,300m2.

The computer system at Quynh Luu 4 High School is old and damaged. Photo: Mai Hoa

Besides, facilities, equipment, and teaching aids in subjects are outdated; the use of IT and Foreign Language rooms in high schools is not high.

At Quynh Luu 4 High School, although equipped with a language classroom with a cabin and headphones, after checking the 10-week schedule, there were 2 weeks where no lessons were used, and 2 weeks where 2 lessons were used each week.

At Quynh Luu 1 High School, through a survey of an 11th grade class, since the beginning of the school year there have been 8 IT lessons, but today is the first practical period.

Sanitary facilities are also a matter of concern, as the student population at Quynh Luu 1 High School is nearly 1,700 students, but there are only two toilet blocks for boys and girls, each with eight stalls.

Chairman of Quynh Luu District People's Committee Hoang Van Bo said that in the current national standard school standards, the most difficult thing is the facilities, currently there are more than 30 temporary classrooms and borrowed classrooms. Photo: Mai Hoa

At Quynh Luu 4 High School, in front of each classroom there is a mobile trash can filled with trash, which is both unsanitary and unsightly.

In Quynh Thuan commune, although the kindergarten has been recognized as a standard school, the area and functional rooms are not guaranteed; the two primary and secondary schools have both met the standards and in early September 2019, they merged into a two-level general school, which is also posing many difficulties in continuing to build a standard school.

Overcoming the situation of going first and coming last

In the afternoon, through the working session, the members of the monitoring delegation highly appreciated the attention and leadership of the Party Committee and the government in the work of building national standard schools and inspecting and re-accrediting standard schools. Socialization work has been well implemented, within 5 years, from the 2014-2015 school year to the 2018-2019 school year, the district has mobilized nearly 73 billion VND to build facilities and equipment.

However, the issue that the members of the monitoring team are concerned about is that Quynh Luu was previously the leading locality in the movement to build level I standard schools and from level I to level II, but currently this work is slowing down.

The district currently has 73/105 schools recognized as meeting national standards, accounting for 69.5%. Compared to the general level of the province, Quynh Luu ranks 16th, only ahead of 4 30a districts.

Notably, among the 69 standard kindergartens, primary schools, and secondary schools listed by the district, 17 schools have exceeded the time limit for being recognized as meeting standards (according to regulations, a standard school only has a 5-year period from the date of recognition). There are also more than 30 temporary and borrowed classrooms in the district.

Head of the Culture - Social Committee of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Thi Thu Huong delivered a concluding speech at the meeting. Photo: Mai Hoa

From that reality, concluding at the meeting, Head of the Culture - Social Committee of the Provincial People's Council Nguyen Thi Thu Huong requested the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to continue to direct strongly, improve the quality of schools that have met the standards associated with paying off the standard debt, avoiding the situation of old standard debt not being paid back, adding some criteria on facilities that continue to deteriorate over time.

Along with that, the district needs to review schools that have met the standards within the deadline to have a plan to strengthen the standards, avoid falling standards when the time for re-recognition comes; at the same time, have a plan and roadmap to re-recognize schools whose standards have expired.

The Head of the Culture and Social Committee of the Provincial People's Council said that the two core contents in building a national standard school are facilities and education quality; therefore, Quynh Luu district needs to focus on mobilizing all resources, especially socialized resources from businesses and philanthropists to build facilities; pay attention to improving the quality of management staff and teachers, in which it is necessary to pay attention to the quality of IT and Foreign Language teachers.

In addition, pay attention to directing schools to build green - clean - beautiful school environments; ensure food hygiene and safety for boarding schools; traffic safety in schools...

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