Why has the boarding school in Con Cuong been established for 10 years and still not been built?
(Baonghean.vn) - According to the leader of Con Cuong district, the project was initially approved but lacked capital. After the capital was available, the cost of site clearance increased, so the old project had to be canceled to survey and establish a new project. That is the reason why the school has not been built even though it was established 10 years ago.
On November 2, Mr. Vi Van Quy - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Con Cuong district said that the locality is speeding up the work to soon build the Con Cuong Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities. "The construction drawing design and project estimate were just appraised by the Department of Construction a few days ago. In the coming time, we will start the bidding process, the district will speed up the progress to start construction soon at the end of 2023 or early 2024", Mr. Quy said.
Con Cuong Ethnic Boarding Secondary School was established on August 26, 2013, for outstanding ethnic minority students in the district. Immediately after its establishment, because the school had not yet invested in building facilities, it had to borrow the old facility of Bong Khe Secondary School. By August 2018, due to the impact of severe storms and floods, this borrowed school was heavily flooded, washed away, damaged property and did not ensure the safety of students. Con Cuong district had to urgently relocate the school to 2 locations: teaching and learning was lent a 2-storey building with 12 classrooms by Nghe An Ethnic Boarding Secondary Vocational College; the dormitory for students was borrowed from the district's Continuing Education Center.
At this point, in just a few days, the school will celebrate its 10th anniversary, but students still have to study and stay at other units.
According to Mr. Vi Van Quy, the delay in school construction comes from many reasons. Accordingly, in 2016, the Provincial People's Committee issued a decision approving the investment project to build the Con Cuong Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities, with a total investment of 45 billion VND, in Tra Bong village, Bong Khe commune. The project was assigned to the Con Cuong District Project Management Board for implementation, with a time limit of 3 years from the commencement date.
"However, after the project was approved, there was no capital. When there was capital, the cost of site clearance was too high and could not be met. Therefore, the district had to survey another location and cancel the old project," said Mr. Quy.
At the end of 2022, the project was approved by the Provincial People's Committee, with the total investment increased to nearly 84 billion VND. The entire capital source is from the Central budget to implement the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas for the period 2021-2025. The selected location this time is Thanh Nam village, Bong Khe commune. The project implementation period is 2 years.
Previously, as reported by Nghe An Newspaper, although established in 2013, after 10 years, the Con Cuong District Boarding Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities has yet to build its facilities. Currently, the school is borrowing 12 rooms from the local Boarding Secondary Vocational School for Ethnic Minorities for teaching. In addition to 12 classrooms, the school does not have any functional rooms or a principal's office. The room of less than 15 square meters is the workplace of 4 people, including 3 teachers in the Board of Directors and an accountant. The space under the stairs is used as a mixed room including: medical room, equipment room and Youth Union.
In the mixed room under the stairs, every space is utilized. In the 2023-2024 school year, the school has just cleaned up the equipment to put in a medical bed. When there are no students needing first aid, this place also becomes a waiting room for teachers. Ms. Pham Thi Huong Giang - Chemistry teacher said that the school did not dare to buy enough chemicals and experimental equipment because there was no safe place to store them. In this mixed room, teachers only dare to keep some dry chemicals, but most of them have run out.
Meanwhile, the student dormitory is borrowed from the Con Cuong District Continuing Education Center, but the facilities here are also old and degraded. The walls of the male student dormitory have peeling plaster in patchy patches. This 2023-2024 school year, the school has 385 students but only 10 dormitories, so each room has about 40 students. The bunk beds in the rooms are placed close together, except for a small space in the middle used as a walkway.
Mr. Lo Van Thiep - Principal of Con Cuong Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities said that due to lack of rooms, the school has not dared to recruit enough students for many years. Therefore, the wish of teachers and students here is to have a proper school./.
