Building new rural cultural institutions in Tan Ky: Still many difficulties

(Baonghean) - Building cultural institutions is to perfect the system of facilities serving cultural and artistic activities, physical education and sports to improve the spiritual life of the people. Like many other localities in the province, in Tan Ky district, the construction of cultural institutions is currently facing many difficulties...

Hamlet 2, Nghia Binh commune is the hamlet that has built standard cultural institutions and has been recognized as a Cultural Village. Taking us to visit the cultural house, outdoor stage, soccer field, volleyball court, and introducing the achievements through certificates of merit, certificates of merit, and emulation flags awarded by all levels, Hamlet Chief Phan Ba ​​Luong proudly said: "In terms of economy, compared to the general level, Hamlet 2 is only in the average group of 12 hamlets in the commune. However, cultural and sports activities are among the "top ten" of the district..." Hamlet 2 has 140 households, of which 108 have achieved the title of Cultural Family. According to Mr. Luong, the reason the hamlet has built cultural institutions is because the people here truly consider cultural and sports activities as indispensable daily spiritual food. Everyone actively contributes labor, money, and land to build cultural facilities. For example, to build a stadium, on average each person contributes 18 square meters of land under the regime granted under Decree 64; in addition, people also contribute tens of thousands of working days and funds...

Hamlet 2, Nghia Binh commune was awarded many certificates of merit from all levels for cultural and sports activities.

However, not all hamlets in Nghia Binh have positive changes like hamlet 2. In hamlet 11, where most of the Thanh ethnic people live, people benefit from Programs 135 and 134. In 2012, the State invested funds to build a spacious and spacious cultural house. However, the socialization to build synchronous cultural institutions has not been possible, besides, cultural and sports activities here are always submerged. Hamlet 11 also did not register for the title of cultural village because, as some people here innocently said: "Being a cultural village will mean losing poor households"...

As a model commune for new rural construction in Tan Ky, after 3 years of implementation, Nghia Binh has only achieved 13/19 criteria. The remaining 6 criteria have not been met, including 2 criteria in the cultural field. The commune has 12 hamlets, but currently only 6 hamlets have standard cultural institutions; 6/12 hamlets are recognized as Cultural Villages; there is absolutely no cultural institution at the commune level. Ms. Vo Thi Nguyen - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee in charge of culture and society said: "Nghia Binh has paid attention to directing the construction of cultural institutions. At the hamlet level, people are encouraged to contribute and mobilize socialization to implement. Any hamlet that builds a cultural house and registers for the title of Cultural Village, the commune will allocate 12 million VND from the budget to support the purchase of essential equipment. We set a target to complete the cultural village criteria by the end of this year. As for building standard cultural facilities at the commune level, the implementation cost is too large...". According to the Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Bich, the goal of Nghia Binh achieving new rural status by 2015 is difficult to achieve, and the criterion of building cultural facilities is the most difficult. Mr. Bich said: "For mid-sized communes like Nghia Binh, to build a community house, stadium, and communal cultural house that meets standards, it will take a long time without support from above...".

Nghia Binh commune is facing difficulties, so remote communes like Phu Son are facing even more difficulties. Up to now, Phu Son has only achieved 8/19 new rural criteria. 11 hamlets of Phu Son have cultural houses, however, no hamlet has met the standards for cultural facilities; only 2 hamlets have been recognized as Cultural Villages. According to the Party Secretary of the commune, Mr. Nguyen Ho Thu, Phu Son is a particularly difficult commune in a remote area with limited economic development conditions, low per capita income, uneven education, complex terrain, and fragmented land... With such conditions, the goal of building a new rural area, although being paid attention to, is very difficult to achieve. And, investing in building a system of cultural facilities at the commune level that meet standards is a criterion that Phu Son officials and people have not dared to set at this time. "Phu Son has two criteria that are about to meet the standards: schools and markets. From now on, we have to focus on implementing the criteria on transportation to facilitate people's travel, business and economic development. As for the criteria on culture, even though we want to, we have to postpone them until later..." - Mr. Nguyen Ho Thu said.

Cultural facilities of hamlet 6B, Nghia Dong commune have just been completed.

According to statistics from the Steering Committee of the movement of All people unite to build a cultural life in Tan Ky district, currently the system of cultural facilities, specialized equipment and facilities has been invested and increased significantly. The whole district has 17/22 communes with cultural houses of over 200 seats, of which 9 cultural houses meet standards; There are 6 communes including: Tan Hop, Tan Phu, Tan Xuan, Nghia Dong, Tien Ky, Tan Long with synchronous multi-functional cultural houses (the communal People's Committee hall has full functional rooms) and stadiums to ensure the organization of activities; 199/268 hamlets have cultural houses of over 80 seats; 246/268 hamlets have simple sports grounds; 235/268 hamlets have synchronous cultural houses and sports grounds to ensure the organization of activities. There are 144/268 hamlets recognized as achieving the title of Cultural Village; 24,450/33,909 households have achieved the title of Cultural Family. The total investment of the State for the construction of cultural and sports facilities (for commune, hamlet, and block levels) to date is 15 billion 440 million VND, mobilizing people's contributions is 7 billion 121 million VND... However, according to Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong - Head of the District Culture Department, the work of building cultural facilities to ensure meeting new rural standards in Tan Ky still has many limitations. Communes in the area are all focusing on implementing criteria on transportation, irrigation, land conversion... so they have not focused on the criteria for building cultural facilities. Mr. Phuong said: "Tan Ky district determines that each commune must strive to achieve 2-3 new rural criteria each year. Which criteria to strive for is up to the commune level and the people to choose and register. It cannot be said that the commune level is not interested, but in building new rural areas, cultural criteria are often left until the end of this year. Even Nghia Dong commune has just completed the criteria for building cultural facilities to be recognized as meeting new rural standards...". There are 2 basic reasons that Mr. Nguyen Van Phuong mentioned, which are difficulties in implementation costs and the planned area of ​​land for cultural houses and stadiums has increased too much compared to before. "The land area for the construction of the cultural center and the commune-level stadium is very large and must be contiguous. The commune-level cultural and sports center must be 2,500m2 for the plains, 2,000m2 for the mountainous areas; the cultural house must have a construction scale of 200 seats, 4 functional rooms for the mountainous areas and 250 seats, 5 functional rooms for the plains; the stadium area must be at least 10,800m2. In addition, to build standard cultural facilities, each commune will have to invest tens of billions of VND. These issues are really difficult problems..." - Mr. Phuong added.

According to Mr. Phuong, the district leaders have identified the difficulties and have shown their concern. However, as a poor district, the budget revenue in the area is only about 25 billion VND/year, so it is very difficult for the district to invest in the communes in building cultural facilities. To contribute to improving the quality of cultural facilities at the commune level, the district has recently approved the Project "Improving the quality of grassroots radio stations" and has been implementing it since June 2014. According to the project, to upgrade, each commune radio station needs about 300 million VND. The district will provide 50% of the funding for communes in difficult areas; 40% for average areas; and 30% for well-off communes including Nghia Dong and towns, and this is also an effort of the district.

Discussing the issue of building new rural cultural institutions, Vice Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee, Mr. Nguyen Duy Nho said: "Throughout the implementation of the national target program on building new rural areas, in addition to the "stimulus" support of the State, it is basically about promoting people's resources. What needs to be considered is what to do so that people have resources, from which people's resources can be promoted. As a person working in cultural work, according to Mr. Nguyen Duy Nho, it is necessary to pay attention to improving the spiritual and cultural life of the people, but in the face of common difficulties, it is not necessary to rush, at all costs to achieve the criteria of building cultural facilities, because then the sustainability is not high. "Tan Ky is focusing on many measures to implement so that the movement of the whole people uniting to build a cultural life is truly effective, attractive and truly enters people's lives. I think that only when people's material and spiritual life is improved, will creating resources to build new rural cultural institutions be more favorable and sustainable..." - Vice Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee Nguyen Duy Nho worried.

Nhat Lan