Building a positive and friendly educational environment

(Baonghean) - During the 2010-2015 term, the provincial Department of Education and Training made important marks in organizing and rearranging the scale of schools and classes, stabilizing the organization at all levels. Thereby, contributing to narrowing the regional gap and improving the overall quality of education. Evaluating the achievements of the past term, Nghe An Newspaper had an interview with comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, member of the Provincial Party Committee, Director of the Department of Education and Training.

Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, Director of the Department of Education and Training, visited Huoi May school (Cam Muon commune, Que Phong). Photo: Dao Tuan.

PV:Dear comrade, reorganizing the school network is the basis for building educational and training goals in line with the development needs of society. During the past term, what directions did the provincial education sector give and what results did it achieve?

Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:During the past term, the Department of Education and Training has focused on rearranging the network of kindergartens and general schools in the province with the following focuses: Implementing the conversion of school types according to Circular No. 11/2009/TT - BGDĐT of the Ministry of Education and Training; directing the merger of small-scale junior high schools into inter-commune schools to effectively use resources and teaching staff, contributing to improving the quality of education; encouraging the development of non-public educational institutions in places with needs and conditions; rearranging the system of ethnic boarding high schools, building and developing the system of ethnic boarding and semi-boarding junior high schools to improve the quality of education in mountainous and ethnic areas.

As a result, 353 semi-public kindergartens and 3 semi-public high schools have been converted to public schools, 20 private high schools have been converted to private schools; 24 more kindergartens have been established (including 22 private schools), 24 junior high schools have been merged, 2 private high schools have been dissolved; 2 boarding high schools for ethnic minorities have been rearranged, 6 more boarding junior high schools for ethnic minorities have been developed, and 27 semi-boarding junior high schools for ethnic minorities have been developed. The current school network (including 532 kindergartens, 543 primary schools, 408 junior high schools and 89 high schools) is quite suitable for the socio-economic conditions of the province, meeting the learning needs of children, especially in mountainous and ethnic minority areas.

Since then, the quality of teaching has changed for the better. The construction of physical facilities has been focused on, the investment is not fragmented but more concentrated, more favorable, calling for many social resources from many localities. The number of qualified schools has increased by more than 340 schools compared to the beginning of the term, bringing the number of qualified schools in the whole province to 905 schools, accounting for nearly 60%, higher than the national average (37.74%) and higher than neighboring provinces such as Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh.

PV:The work of stabilizing the organization is also a success of the industry in recent times, especially at the preschool level. What does this mean for the development of education, especially the universalization of preschool education for 5-year-old children?

Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:The determination to convert the type of preschool was officially implemented after the Provincial People's Committee approved the Project to convert the type of semi-public preschools and after only nearly 1 year of preparation, by September 2011, 100% of semi-public preschools had converted to the public type (353 schools). Of which, 37 schools in the 2 mountainous areas were converted to the public type, converting 296 semi-public preschools, Lang Sen Kindergarten (Nam Dan) and Nghi Phu Kindergarten (Vinh City) to public with partial autonomy in operating costs.

In addition, 16 key public kindergartens and 20 other qualified semi-public kindergartens have been converted into public kindergartens implementing high-quality programs with partial autonomy in operating costs.

Despite the difficulties in budget and funding, with high determination, the province has allocated nearly 300 billion VND per year to recruit nearly 6,000 preschool staff and teachers into the payroll, enjoying the new salary regime, contributing to creating stability and development for schools after the conversion of school types; in the 2014 - 2015 school year, it advised on contracts for 1,608 teachers for public preschools, ensuring the requirements to achieve the goal of universalizing preschool education for 5-year-old children in the province.

Collective activity time of students at Chau Hoi Primary School (Quy Chau). Photo: My Ha.

PV:In the coming term, stabilizing and improving the quality of comprehensive education will be the key task. What orientations will the sector have to achieve this goal and to respond to the spirit of Resolution No. 29 on “Comprehensive fundamental innovation of education and training”?

Comrade Nguyen Thi Kim Chi:To ensure sustainable comprehensive education quality, we focus on implementing the following key solutions:

Focus on training and improving the quality of the teaching staff, paying attention to training political awareness, ideology, qualities, and professional ethics so that each teacher can truly be a shining example for students to follow. Take care of building school facilities and teaching equipment. Actively eliminate temporary, borrowed, and degraded classrooms; build a system of functional rooms and subject classrooms; invest in and purchase supplies and toys for preschools, teaching equipment for general schools, especially IT, foreign language, and audio-visual equipment to improve teaching efficiency and effectiveness.

In addition, strengthen educational management, promote inspection and examination work, focusing on internal self-inspection to build and rectify order and discipline in each educational institution. Strengthen educational quality assessment. Seriously carry out the annual assessment and classification of students, staff and teachers. Organize practical and useful emulation movements, especially the "two good" emulation movement. Promote the socialization of education, coordinate with organizations, unions and social forces to build a healthy, friendly and safe educational environment. Actively build national standard schools, considering this the most fundamental and focused solution to improve the quality of comprehensive and sustainable education.

PV:Thank you, comrade!

My Ha(Perform)