VietNamNet Bridge - Overcrowded classes have been a consistent problem in general schools in HCM City, though big money is spent every year to build more classrooms.

HCM City authorities plan to allocate VND2.8 trillion in 2015-2016 to build more classrooms, of which VND1.25 trillion has already been spent to build 953 classrooms. 

However, this has not kept up with the sharp increase in the number of students.

Pham Xuan Dong, head of the district 7’s education and training sub-department, said the district has had 2,000 more students every year, while the number of secondary school students increased sharply. 

Meanwhile, there will be no new classrooms in the district this year. 

The local schools still receive all the students who have applied, but it is clear that the number of students in each class will be too high.

The same situation can be seen in districts 8, Tan Phu and Binh Tan, which is attributed to an increase in population. 

In Tan Phu district, the district’s deputy head of the education sub-department Chung Bich Phuong said state-owned nursery schools can satisfy only 40 percent of the demand.

Tan Phu, where there is the Tan Binh Industrial Zone, is a ‘hot spot’ in HCM City because of the increasingly high number of migrant workers. 

In district 8, according to Pham Ung Dung, director of the district’s education sub-department, the total number of classrooms is enough for all children. But the problem is that some localities have too few and others too many classrooms.

While many schools have idle classrooms, the schools in Wards 4 and 16 are overcrowded.

The headmaster of a primary school in district 1 said the overcrowding is seen in nearly all schools in the city. 

Most schools cannot satisfy the requirements to be recognized as standard schools. At many primary schools, there are 50-55 students in every class.

The schools in Go Vap district have been told to receive 7,720 first graders and 7,380 sixth graders this year. 

The An Hoi Primary School has asked to ‘borrow’ five classrooms from the Tan Son Secondary School because An Hoi does not have enough classrooms for its students. 

Meanwhile, the Kim Dong Primary School, which is being repaired, also has to borrow two classrooms from Quang Trung Secondary School.

The headmaster of a primary school in Go Vap complained that it was not feasible to have 40-student classrooms. 

The number of students increases steadily every year, while the number of classrooms remains the same because of a lack of funds.

NLD