Khai Lang Secondary School merger: Need to ensure students' rights

Parents do not send their children to school

In late August, while students across the country were busy preparing for the first day of school, in Lang Son commune (Anh Son district), many students were at risk of not being able to go to class because their parents opposed the school transfer. Meanwhile, the merger of Lang Son Secondary School with Khai Son Secondary School was carried out 4 years ago. Grade 9 students in Lang Son commune have also transferred to the new school, Khai Lang Secondary School (located in Khai Son commune), and have been studying stably since 2018.

According to the leader of Lang Son commune, recently, many parents have declared that they will not let their 9th grade students continue to go to school, to protest the merger. This not only affects the school's preparation for the new school year but also affects the rights of the students.

Khai Lang Secondary School, located in Khai Son commune. Photo: Tien Hung

The merger of Lang Son Secondary School and Khai Son Secondary School was carried out by the People's Committee of Anh Son district from the 2018-2019 school year, into Khai Lang Secondary School (located in Khai Son commune). The new school is more than 4km away from the old Lang Son Secondary School. The project has been approved and implemented, but after 3 years of study, only grade 9 has transferred to the main Khai Lang Secondary School. Grades 6, 7, and 8 of Lang Son commune still study at the second facility.

According to the schedule, at the beginning of this school year, all grades 6, 7, and 8 will be transferred to the new school. However, upon receiving the information, many households simultaneously sent letters of protest. These people said that the facilities of the new school were not yet sufficient for all secondary school students in the two communes. Secondly, the travel of children from grades 6 to 8 from Lang Son commune to Khai Son was very difficult. The furthest distance was in villages 8 and 9, with a distance of more than 8km. In addition, some parents did not agree with the merger because they said that the implementation process had not yet solicited widespread opinions from the people, especially cadres and party members in the villages.

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporters, many households also said that Lang Son commune has a tradition of studiousness. Lang Son Secondary School is the first unit in the district to have two-story classroom facilities. Therefore, if the school is merged into another commune, the local tradition will be lost and Lang Son will lose its secondary school. People wish that instead of merging Lang Son and Khai Son secondary schools, the primary and secondary schools should be merged in the same area to make it more convenient for the people.

Realizing that some people still did not agree, on July 15, the Standing Committee of Anh Son District Party Committee issued a notice on the decision not to merge the remaining grades of Lang Son school to Khai Son school in the 2022-2023 school year. “The district leaders realized that the merger of the remaining grades had not yet received 100% consensus from parents, so it was temporarily suspended. However, the people were still not satisfied, demanding that all grade 9 students of Lang Son commune be transferred to the old school to study. They wanted to keep the school, did not want to merge anymore, so they went to persuade parents not to let their children go to school to put pressure. They also went to propagate that the commune leaders were selling the school, we also had a headache,” the leader of Lang Son commune added.

The facilities at Khai Lang Secondary School have basically met the requirements of the merger. Photo: Tien Hung

Difficult for schools

Talking to Nghe An Newspaper reporter, Mr. Le Dinh Ha - Principal of Khai Lang Secondary School said that the merger but still maintaining 2 schools caused problems in arranging teachers. There were times when a teacher had to travel to 2 schools, which was very difficult. With the merged block, it was not until grade 9 that students returned to the same school, the number of students was redistributed, it took time to get used to and stabilize. Meanwhile, this was an important school year, it was necessary to strengthen teaching to prepare for the entrance exam to grade 10.

“This year, the 9th grade class has 105 students, divided into 3 classes, but each class is very small, only 30 to 35 students. Of the 105 students, 52 are from Lang Son commune, 53 are from Khai Son commune, now we have to divide them to Lang Son commune according to the request of some parents, so we have to arrange 4 9th grade classes, because the regulation is that each class cannot have more than 45 students. This makes it very difficult for the school to arrange teachers, not to mention the waste,” said Mr. Ha.

Similarly, in the remaining grades, according to Mr. Ha, because they are studying at 2 campuses, it is difficult to arrange classes according to the prescribed number of students. Last school year, Lang Son school, grade 7 had 51 students, and could not be divided into 2 classes because it did not ensure the number of students according to the regulations, and there were not enough teachers to teach. But leaving 1 class is too overloaded for both teachers and students. In some other grades, the number of students per class is less than 35. With the above shortcomings, the school principal also said that it is necessary to have consensus among the people soon to carry out the merger for the school, because "first of all, it is to ensure the rights of students and improve the quality of comprehensive education".

The secondary school in Lang Son commune has been degraded due to lack of investment for many years. Photo: Tien Hung

Mr. Doan Van Thanh - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Anh Son district said that the project to merge Khai Son Secondary School and Lang Son Secondary School is based on the actual scale of the school and is consistent with the planning of the school network of the district. The goal is to focus on investing in modern facilities to ensure all necessary conditions for management and teaching, building schools that meet national standards. At the same time, it contributes to reducing management units, arranging and reorganizing appropriate staff, improving operational efficiency, and reducing budget expenditures.

Specifically, according to the 2018 statistics, both Lang Son Secondary School and Khai Son Secondary School each have only 6 classes. Some grades have only 1 class, which affects the quality of teaching and learning at the school. After 4 years of merging, through surveys, the student population of the two communes has not changed much. In the next school year, according to statistics, Lang Son has only 5 classes with 154 students. Meanwhile, at the main Khai Lang Secondary School (including merged 9th grade students), there are only 9 classes with 287 students.

“Currently, for Khai Lang Secondary School, if it is transferred to the main school, the educational environment will be better and is being invested in to gradually synchronize and complete. In the short term, parents and residents will have a little difficulty traveling and will have to endure the hardship of taking their children to school,” said Mr. Thanh.

Quickly overcome limitations

According to Ms. Bui Thi Phuong - Vice Chairman of Anh Son District People's Committee, the project to merge Lang Son Secondary School with Khai Son Secondary School was carried out based on the Resolutions and Directives of the Party and the State. In which, the regulation states that for secondary education, the merger will continue for schools that are too small (less than 8 classes/school).

In order to implement the above documents, the District People's Committee has reviewed the scale of schools and classes in the area and based on the actual situation of the localities. In the 2018-2019 school year, Lang Son Secondary School and Khai Son Secondary School each had only 6 classes, the smallest scale in the district. In June 2018, the Anh Son District People's Committee issued a Decision to merge Lang Son Secondary School with Khai Son Secondary School into Khai Lang Secondary School.

However, during the implementation process, there were also some disagreements, concerns and suggestions for the District People's Committee to address before implementing the merger. According to the leaders of Anh Son district, the recommendations and proposals of the people and parents of students in Lang Son commune have been addressed by the District People's Committee, such as: repairing the traffic route from the main school to Tri Le bridgehead, and the routes for students to go to school from Lang Son to Tao Son.

Anh Son district builds shortcuts to shorten the distance for students in Lang Son commune to get to school. Photo: Tien Hung

For students in difficult circumstances and lacking means of transportation to school, the Secretary of the Anh Son District Party Committee also issued a letter calling for support for the program "Support to School" to support bicycles for students in difficult circumstances without means of transportation to school in the district. As a result, departments, branches, and benefactors donated dozens of bicycles to help students in Lang Son commune have more convenient means of transportation to school every day. Regarding investment in facilities at Khai Son school, the District People's Committee has invested in building additional classrooms, functional rooms, and equipping teaching equipment for the IT room, Foreign Language room, Technology room... to implement the 2018 General Education Program and has so far ensured the conditions to bring them to study at 1 location in Khai Son. After 4 years of merging grade 9, the quality of learning of the students has also increased significantly.

“Students need to go to school. The new school year will begin in just a few days,” said Ms. Bui Thi Phuong.