School merger - An essential condition to improve education quality

(Baonghean) - Nearly a month has passed since the start of the new school year, but more than 100 students at Tien - Thiet Secondary School still have not been able to go to school. The ones preventing their right to study are none other than their parents. So what is the cause of this unfortunate incident?!

The policy of merging schools is the basis for building long-term educational and training goals in the right direction, in line with the development needs of society. This is inevitable when the student ratio is decreasing and the size of schools is increasingly narrowing. In fact, from the 80s to the 90s of the 20th century, based on the situation of each locality and area (population density, number of students in each period, etc.), the Provincial People's Committee has had a policy of separating and merging separate schools and levels of education to focus on investing in facilities and improving the quality of education.

Opening ceremony of Le Xuan Dao Secondary School (Hung Nguyen), the school merged from Hung Linh Secondary School and Hung Long Secondary School since 2011.

By the end of the 2000-2001 school year, the province began to develop projects on school network planning to ensure long-term planning. Based on adjustments to suit the actual situation, the Provincial People's Council issued Resolution 271 on school network planning in the province until 2015. The Provincial People's Committee concretized this Resolution by issuing Decision 71 approving the project on school network planning in the province until 2015.

Every year, based on reality, the Department of Education and Training has approved the Education Development Plan according to the roadmap of school mergers, to avoid the situation of small-scale schools, limiting investment in building functional rooms, subject classrooms and teachers having to teach cross-subjects, affecting the quality of teaching and learning.

Implementing this policy, up to now, the province has merged over 100 schools at all levels. Most of the merged schools have focused on management, created favorable conditions for professional arrangement, increased exchange activities, class observation, class visits... Students and teachers have a more favorable environment to compete in teaching and learning well. Merging schools also saves investment costs, while creating opportunities to hand over premises and facilities to disadvantaged areas to serve educational development goals. Many facilities after the merger have been converted to serve kindergartens and primary schools.

During the implementation of the merger policy, the quality of education in many localities has been significantly improved. The mountainous district of Quy Chau is a typical example. Faced with the reality that the scale of schools and classes is decreasing day by day, the Party Committee, the government and the education sector of the district have propagated and mobilized people to merge preschools, primary schools and small secondary schools in the area and received high consensus. For example, at Hoi - Nga Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities, it was merged from the 2013 - 2014 school year. Initially, when implementing the merger, the commune government and the school's Board of Directors were very worried, because from Nga Son village, the farthest place in Chau Nga commune, to the new school, students had to travel a distance of over 12 kilometers. At the beginning of the merger, out of concern for the students, the school still maintained 1 school but 2 locations. Later, due to the characteristics, secondary school teachers had to teach by class, and there were times when teachers had to go to 2 schools at the same time, so the quality could not be guaranteed.

Meal of students at Hoi Nga Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities (Quy Chau).

Faced with this reality, entering the second semester, the school and local authorities mobilized people in Chau Nga to let students study at one location. The school gave up the entire block of public rooms to serve as boarding houses for students. The results were clear, as from the 2013-2014 school year until now, the school has had no students drop out. Chau Nga students, after many years of "no" titles, in the 2014-2015 school year, for the first time, had 7 students achieving district excellent student awards, Hoang Thi Lien was also selected to compete in the provincial excellent student competition. The old school was given up to Chau Nga Primary School, because the two schools have been studying together for a long time, and classrooms are very lacking. Chau Hoi School has now also been recognized as a national standard school.

Up to now, the whole district of Quy Chau has merged 4 inter-commune secondary schools: Binh Thuan Secondary School, Tien Thang Secondary School, Hoa Lam Secondary School and Hoi - Nga Secondary School, of which 3 schools after the merger, thanks to the focus on investment in facilities, school equipment and quality, have been recognized as standard schools. In addition, at the preschool level, the number of preschools has decreased from 56 preschools in 2009 to 42 preschools (including 30 separate schools); from 48 primary schools to 40 primary schools (including 24 separate schools). Thanks to the network of schools and classes being arranged, located and merged reasonably, suitable to the characteristics of each locality; the rate of mobilizing school-age children to go to school is high (average at all levels is over 98%), the quality of education has been greatly improved, the rate of Quy Chau students passing the provincial boarding high school for ethnic minorities and specialized schools in the province is increasing day by day.

In Hung Nguyen district, although there are 23 communes and towns, the current scale of Hung Nguyen secondary school is only 11 schools, including 7 inter-commune schools, including 2 inter-commune schools, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Secondary School and Lam Thanh Secondary School. Thanks to this merger, the network of secondary schools in Hung Nguyen has stabilized. Not only does it create conditions for the district to arrange a synchronous teaching staff, avoiding the situation of teachers teaching cross-subjects, but it also helps to focus on investing in facilities and improving the quality of teaching and learning. Mr. Hoang Nghia Hai, Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Hung Nguyen district, shared that: Merging 2 schools is difficult, merging 3 or 4 schools is even more difficult, because the mentality of localities is that they all want schools to be located in their area. Parents also want their children to study near home. However, the district determined that merging schools is an urgent matter when the scale of schools has shrunk. Therefore, we have promoted propaganda and mobilization work, selected suitable locations to build schools, and minimized the mobilization of funding from students. In addition, existing facilities have also been effectively used as kindergartens, community learning centers, etc. Therefore, the merger has been carried out smoothly.

Right in Nghi Loc district, the merger of schools has been carried out for nearly 10 years, creating positive changes in teaching and learning. Hung Dong Secondary School (merged from Nghi Hung and Nghi Dong Secondary Schools) is one of them. In the 2015-2016 school year, the school has just received the title of national standard, an achievement that people in the poor rural areas here had never thought of in previous years. Throughout the district, many schools after the merger have also operated effectively such as Khanh Hop Secondary School, Thinh Truong Secondary School, Nghi Hung Secondary School... Mr. Nguyen Van Thong, Head of the Department of Education of Nghi Loc district said: Due to the decrease in population size, the merger of schools is extremely necessary to ensure the interests of students and facilitate teaching and learning. Of course, the merger process will lead to disruptions for parents and students, but for the common and long-term benefit, it needs the support of the people and local authorities. And the plan to merge Nghi Thiet Secondary School and Nghi Tien Secondary School into Tien - Thiet Secondary School is no exception and has been part of the approved plan since the 2008 - 2009 school year...

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