Lack and waste of teaching equipment in schools

Lack and waste
More than 5 years ago, when the 10-year foreign language project was implemented, Trung Do Secondary School (Vinh city) was one of the first schools to be equipped with a specialized foreign language lab with quite modern equipment including computers, projectors and a headphone system for teachers and students... Since its operation, the lab has been effective, providing students with many opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, and the quality of foreign language training at the school has improved significantly.

However, after many years of use, the equipment in the room has begun to deteriorate and break down. For example, this school year, although the need to use the lab is frequent, in the first months of the school year, the projector in the specialized room was broken.

The system of headset booths is also no longer effective because the booths are built too high. Therefore, when the teacher sits on the podium, he will not be able to observe the entire class and it is easy for students to do their own work during class. Regarding this issue, teacher Dinh Thi Minh Thao - English teacher said: To learn English effectively, a specialized lab is absolutely necessary. But with this state of disrepair, learning will be interrupted.

The specialized English classroom at Trung Do Secondary School (Vinh City) has many inappropriate and damaged designs. Photo: My Ha

Previously, teacher Nguyen Minh Khoa - Principal of Trung Do Secondary School also said: The entire lab is sponsored by the project, so the repair and warranty also depends on the equipment supplier. This year, because the warranty period has expired, although the school has asked the supplier to repair it soon, the unit is slow to fix it because the head office is located in Hanoi... It is known that the cost for one repair is not small. Meanwhile, the machinery system is damaged almost every year, causing a lot of pressure on the school.

This wasteful situation also occurs in many other schools that have benefited from the foreign language project. For example, Nghi Hoa Primary School (Nghi Loc), the school was previously equipped with a specialized computer room, a projector, and an interactive smart pen to help primary school students learn English effectively. However, after only one year of use, the textbooks and pens were no longer compatible, so for many years the pens have been wasted, even though the investment in these pens was up to tens of millions of dong.

On the contrary, in some schools there is a shortage of teaching equipment. At Nghi Huong Secondary School (Cua Lo town), although it is a key school of the town, currently teacher Tran Thi Thu Huong - Principal of the school also affirmed: Teaching and learning equipment for subjects only meets 50% of the demand. On the school side, every year they buy additional teaching equipment, but due to limited funding, they can only replace some damaged equipment.

In the Physics class of teacher Doan Thi Lien, we also clearly saw the difficulty of the subject teacher when arranging the practical lesson for the 9th grade students. Specifically, with the practical lesson "Determining the capacity of electrical appliances", if according to the requirements of a class of nearly 40 students, there must be at least 7 sets of Voltmeters, Ammeters and on average 6 students will be organized into a group. But at present, because there are only 3 sets, the teacher is forced to divide into large groups of 10 - 15 students and the practical lesson, which should have been for the students to "do experiments", is now mainly just observation.

Not yet invested synchronously

Every year, most schools in the province allocate a portion of their regular budget to purchase teaching materials and equipment. However, compared to the needs, it is really difficult and most of them are in a patchwork state.

At Nghi Hoa Secondary School – one of the most disadvantaged schools in Nghi Loc district today, the regular expenditure source is very small each year because the school has only 8 classes. In previous years, the socialized revenue was only about 30 million VND/year, so the budget for purchasing equipment and teaching aids was very small.

Entering the school's practice room and equipment, it seems that there are no modern equipment, but there are many damaged and outdated equipment due to long-term use. Teacher Duong Phu Giap - Vice Principal of the school also said: "Currently, only Physics subject is where we basically meet the teaching needs. For the remaining subjects such as Chemistry, Biology, and Informatics, the practice equipment is lacking and old."

Many teaching equipment at Nghi Hoa Secondary School were damaged. Photo: My Ha

Sharing these difficulties, Ms. Vo Thi Tuyet Chinh - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district added: "Since 2000, when textbooks were replaced, schools in the district have been equipped with quite a lot of equipment and teaching aids. But after nearly 20 years, most of the equipment has been damaged and is no longer effective. As for the schools, if they are lacking, they have to study "freely" because mobilizing social resources in mountainous areas is very difficult."

The lack and weakness in teaching equipment and facilities at present is still an obstacle that makes it difficult for schools to innovate in the spirit of Resolution No. 29. For example, at Anh Son 2 High School, for many years now, the school has encouraged teachers to increase the use of electronic lesson plans in teaching. However, at present, the demand is high while the school's projector system only has 3 usable projectors, so it is very difficult to arrange and schedule teaching hours for teachers. That also partly affects the effectiveness and quality of teaching lessons.

Damaged equipment at Nghi Hoa Secondary School (Nghi Loc). Photo: My Ha

Regarding the issue of purchasing teaching equipment in schools today, there are also many different opinions. For example, according to teacher Nguyen Hong Hai - Principal of Cua Lo 2 High School, currently, purchasing teaching equipment is usually equipped annually.

However, if the investment is synchronous, it will be more effective because it is closer to the professional tasks and avoids the situation of sometimes having too much, sometimes not enough. In the current conditions, the education sector also encourages schools to promote the purchase of teaching equipment in the form of socialization or promote the initiative and creativity of making teaching aids among the teaching staff.

Currently, this policy is being promoted quite positively in preschool education and if it spreads to other levels, it will help schools be more proactive in supplementing teaching equipment. At the same time, this is also an opportunity for teachers and schools to promote their capacity, responsibility, love for the profession, love for students and have many innovations in teaching and learning.