Cua Nam Kindergarten (Vinh City) is struggling because it has to rent classrooms.

Struggling because the school lacks classrooms

The class of teachers Tran Thi Hai Yen and Dinh Thi Huong Giang with nearly 40 students has been temporarily studying at the Grade 13 Cultural House in Cua Nam Ward for many years now. This is also the last separate location in Vinh City and has existed for over 10 years, causing great hardship not only for students but also for parents and teachers.

Talking about her job, teacher Tran Thi Hai Yen said that it is a “multi-tasking” job where she is a teacher, a staff member, a janitor and even a chef: Although the school is a remote location, we still organize boarding for students. Every day, the school helps transport food by motorbike to the remote location. The rest of the work includes cooking, cleaning, and washing dishes for the students.

The removal of satellite schools at Cua Nam Kindergarten encountered many difficulties due to lack of classrooms. Photo: My Ha

Studying at a satellite school makes class activities more difficult than at the main school, partly because the facilities depend on the village cultural house, and partly because teaching conditions are not guaranteed.

Teacher Yen also added: For the sake of the students, we try to participate in all the school's activities, but transporting teaching equipment is very difficult. During many school assemblies, we ask parents to take their children, but when they return, the teachers have to take turns taking them back to the separate location. After 7 years of being attached to this school, I, the parents and students only wish for a spacious, well-equipped school so that the children can study with their friends in a complete learning environment.

The entire Cua Nam Kindergarten currently has 290 students but only 9 classes, of which 8 classes are at the main school and 1 class is at the satellite school. Compared to the scale of a kindergarten in the center of Vinh city, the number of students mobilized to the school is only 1/4 of the number of universal students (with nearly 1,400 students). The remaining parents in the ward must apply to transfer to kindergartens in neighboring wards or accept to send their children to private kindergartens.

Classroom in the cultural house of Cua Nam Kindergarten. Photo: My Ha

For about 10 years now, Cua Nam Kindergarten has always been a “hot spot” for enrollment, because the demand for childcare is high but the school facilities are very limited. At the beginning of this school year, despite the high demand, the school only had 28 quotas and recruiting students was really difficult.

Talking about the physical facilities at Cua Nam Kindergarten, teacher Tran Thi Thai - Principal of the school said: The entire campus of Cua Nam Kindergarten is only nearly 1,000 m²With 8 classrooms (including the area of ​​the adjacent ward cultural house), we cannot increase the quota because there are not enough classrooms for students. Previously, the school had 2 satellite schools and the school tried very hard to eliminate 1 school. The parents' needs are very high every year and the school always has to ask parents to sympathize and share the school's difficulties because this is entirely due to objective conditions.

Cua Nam Kindergarten on De Tham Street has been auctioned and will be moved to a new location in the near future. Photo: My Ha

The school is cramped and old, and for nearly 10 years now there has been information about the "rush" to transfer the school, so the investment in facilities is still "patchy". Because the priority is given to classrooms for teachers, the entire board of directors and departments such as accounting and treasurer all share the same room. When the school organizes professional meetings, summaries, and year-end reviews, it either has to borrow the meeting room of the neighborhood cultural house, or take advantage of the end of school hours to use the students' classrooms. However, no matter which option is used, meetings must be held outside of working hours.

Waiting for a new school

Cua Nam Kindergarten located at De Tham Street, Block 5, Cua Nam Ward has been in operation for more than 20 years. In the current system of kindergartens in Vinh City, Cua Nam Kindergarten is the most disadvantaged school.

Previously, due to the small size of the school, for a long time, investment was limited and lacked uniformity. The school lacked a campus, a playground, and enough classrooms and minimum functional rooms. The existing planning was also not enough to build a national standard school according to the new regulations and did not meet the scale of preschool development in the area.

Classrooms at Cua Nam Kindergarten are quite cramped, making it difficult to meet teaching and learning requirements. Photo: My Ha.

The policy of building a new Cua Nam Kindergarten has been implemented by the Cua Nam ward government and Vinh city People's Committee for many years, but the plan is still "on hold" for various reasons.

Because the old area was not enough, in July this year, the entire area of ​​the school (including the kindergarten and the ward cultural house) was auctioned to raise funds to build a new school.

The successful bidder has now paid the full amount to the budget and received the house and land, but still created conditions for Cua Nam Kindergarten to operate for a few more months to find a new facility. In early September, although the new school year had just started for a week, the teachers of Cua Nam Kindergarten, in addition to performing their professional duties, were busy preparing to clean up and move to a new location...

Many toys and equipment have to be left outside because the school grounds are too small. Photo: My Ha

The current difficulty is that although the transfer date is near, choosing a suitable location for a kindergarten, with enough facilities for nearly 300 students and convenient for parents to pick up and drop off is still in need of consideration. The school principal also said that he has surveyed 3 locations to submit to the ward People's Committee for consideration.

Meanwhile, according to the new regulations, the selection of locations and selected units must follow the correct procedures and the units must prepare auction documents. However, up to this point, only one document has been sent to the People's Committee of Cua Nam Ward to request an auction.

Teaching, working and boarding conditions at Cua Nam Kindergarten are all difficult and degraded. Photo: My Ha

Regarding the construction of a new school, Mr. Dang Hieu Lam - Chairman of the People's Committee of Cua Nam Ward added: Currently, the People's Committee of Cua Nam Ward has planned the construction site of Cua Nam Kindergarten at a new location in Block 2, Cua Nam Ward with a total area of ​​more than 3,500 m². The design and construction planning has also been done.

The biggest wish of the local government and people is that after completing the auction of the old facility, relevant departments and branches need to quickly create conditions to complete the procedures according to regulations and proceed with the construction of a new school for students, avoiding the situation of having to prolong the time of renting a location to organize teaching and learning.

The school campus is cramped, making it difficult to carry out extracurricular activities. Photo: My Ha

Regarding Cua Nam Kindergarten, Mr. Le Truong Son - Deputy Head of Vinh City Department of Education and Training, in charge of preschool education, also said: The difficult conditions of Cua Nam Kindergarten have lasted for a very long time and in the next few years the number of students in the area will continue to increase. Therefore, the construction of a new kindergarten to meet the teaching and learning needs is a legitimate and essential aspiration, which needs to be implemented soon to ensure teaching and learning.