The school is struggling to reclaim land from its teachers.
After dozens of meetings and the involvement of numerous agencies, the Nghe An Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School has still been unable to reclaim the land it lent to teachers for construction. Furthermore, many other schools in the province are facing a similar situation.
Stalemate at the Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School
On the first day of January 2025, the high-rise building of the projectConstruction of dormitories for the Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School.Workers are still completing the final stages of the project. This project has been delayed because five teacher families borrowed land and dormitories from the school to live in, but then refused to return them and hand over the premises.
It wasn't until July 2024, after numerous negotiations, that four households finally agreed to return the land. Only then did the construction unit have the site to build the building. However, to this day, one household still refuses to return the land, preventing the construction of the power station from proceeding. This is the case of Mr. Nguyen Van Ky.
The land reclamation campaign by teachers of the Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School began in 2019. At that time, after securing funding, the school's leadership worked with five families, requesting them to move out within a year so the school could use the land to build a dormitory for students as committed in the loan agreement. Only one family did not object. The remaining families requested three years to arrange their relocation. The school agreed to the three-year deadline.
According to the reporter's investigation, the incident began in 2006, when the school lent the teachers' dormitory to three families and land within the school grounds to two other families for building houses. The loan agreement also stipulated that these five teachers had to commit to "not expanding beyond the designated area; the use period would last until the school needed the houses, at least 12 months' notice was given so that the families could find alternative housing…".
However, during their stay, many households violated their contractual obligations by renovating and expanding beyond the borrowed area without the school's permission. Subsequently, some individuals, even those who retired and returned to their hometowns 15 years ago, and others who built their own houses outside the school premises long ago, still refused to return the communal housing to the school.
In October 2023, the project commenced, but five households still refused to hand over the land for construction. The construction company had to repeatedly send letters to the investor complaining about the delay in land handover, causing workers to be left without work and risking having their investment funding cut due to the slow progress. After many meetings and persuasion efforts, four households have now agreed to relocate.
Previously, after these teacher households filed complaints demanding compensation, the provincial People's Committee leaders repeatedly met with citizens and responded in writing, stating: "There is no basis for resolution and they do not meet the conditions for compensation, support, or resettlement according to the law." At the same time, they requested that the households promptly hand over the land so that the Nghe An Ethnic Boarding High School could implement the project according to schedule.
Besides,Provincial InspectorateThe investigation also concluded that the entire area of land used by Mr. Nguyen Van Ky and the four other teachers originated from land lent to them by the Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School for housing construction in 2006, and is located entirely within the school's land plot…
"According to the project design, that location is designated for a power station, so sooner or later the land will have to be reclaimed to build a power station for the school. We're out of options; now we can only rely on the authorities," said a school leader.
"Because it happened a long time ago, it's difficult to deal with."
Not only the Provincial Ethnic Boarding High School, but many other schools in Nghe An province are also facing similar land encroachment issues. Specifically, Phu Son Primary School (Tan Ky district) had 20 meters of its land cut off by a decision of the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee.2The school's land was leased to a local official to run a general store. The store was located right in the center of the commune, behind the school and in front of the commune's People's Committee office. Later, this family encroached on more of the school's land to build a multi-story house to live in, increasing the total area to over 150 square meters.2Not to mention, this family also received compensation for land clearance covering an area of over 60 square meters.2 on this plot of land.
In 2018, after numerous complaints from residents, the Tan Ky District People's Committee concluded that the decision to cut off land by the Chairman of the Phu Son Commune People's Committee was beyond his authority. It also determined that the family of the commune official had encroached on school land. However, to date, no disciplinary action has been taken.
"The incident happened a long time ago, so it's difficult to handle. We may seek guidance from the District People's Committee in the near future," said Mr. Nguyen Van Dung, Chairman of the Phu Son Commune People's Committee.
At Do Luong 1 High School (Da Son commune, Do Luong district), many years ago, the school's security guard borrowed a small plot of land next to the school gate to sell sugarcane juice. Each year, he paid the school 500,000 VND in fees. However, somehow, the security guard's family was later granted a land use certificate for this location without the school's knowledge. "We wanted to reclaim it, but now that they've been issued the land title, we can't do anything," said the school's leader.
At Ha Huy Tap High School (Vinh City), despite having retired 15 years ago, one teacher still refuses to return the school's dormitory. Recently, he even arbitrarily renovated and expanded the space, putting up a "for rent" sign. The dormitory, which was originally only about 40 square meters, has now been renovated and expanded.2Currently, the area of the house this man is living in is nearly 90 square meters.2, with a frontage of nearly 13 meters along Nguyen Dinh Chieu street.
Following the report by Nghe An Newspaper, we invited the teacher to a meeting and reaffirmed that the dormitory building is school property, and we instructed him not to rent it out. We could only suggest that he find alternative accommodation as soon as possible so he could return the dormitory to the school. The school actually needs that space to build a parking area for students. The school is in a difficult position. We will soon petition the relevant authorities for assistance.
Mr. Cao Thanh Bao - Principal of Ha Huy Tap High School