VietNamNet Bridge – Nearly all the general schools in Hanoi would be subject to the punishment because of the substandard material facilities and overloaded classes, once the decree being drafted by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is promulgated.

Under a document released in December 2010, there must not be more than 35 students in every class at primary schools. Meanwhile, a “special mechanism” has been exceptionally applied to Hanoi: the schools in the inner city can have up to 40 students for every class.

However, nearly all the schools in Hanoi have more than 40 students in each class. The schools in Hoan Kiem district have been mentioned in dispatches over the last many years for their efforts of curbing the number of students at no more than 45 per class.

Meanwhile, the schools in Dong Da, Hai Ba Trung, Cau Giay, Thanh Xuan and Ba Dinh districts all have 50-60 students per class. The overloaded classes have been existing over the last many years and this is not a surprise to anyone.

The headmaster of a primary school said under the current regulations, there must not be more than 40 students per class. The figure is 35 for national standard schools. Meanwhile, her school has 45 students per class.

Having overloaded classes, general schools’ headmasters had remained unruffled until some days ago; when they heard that heavy fines would be imposed on the schools which cannot meet the standards in material facilities and the size of classes.

Under the draft decree being compiled by MOET, schools would be fined up to VND20 million, if they enroll more students than allowed.

The draft decree has put educators on tenterhooks. If the document is promulgated, nearly all the schools in Hanoi would be punished.

“How can we control the numbers of students in every class, if our schools are located in the areas with high populations?” said Cao Thi Ngan, Deputy Head of the Hai Ba Trung district’s education sub-department.

“We really want to have 35 students only for every class, but we can’t,” she added.

Le Ngoc Quang, Deputy Director of the Hanoi Education and Training Department, has admitted that the MOET’s requirement is overly high for Hanoi. The schools in the city have to accept more students to ensure that all the children can go to school. While the number of children at the school age increases rapidly, the number of classrooms does not increase accordingly, which has resulted in overloaded classes.

Quang said that there has been no more land fund for the city to develop more schools.

According to Ngan, the land is seriously lacking in Hai Ba Trung district. A primary school now has to share the same campus with a secondary school. The students of two wards of Le Dai Hanh and Nguyen Du share the same primary school. The Vinh Tuy Primary School was once recognized as the national standard school. However, its title has been deprived because of the rapid increase in the number of students which has exceeded the allowed level.

Since Hanoi has no land fund for the school development, experts say the only solution is to build multi-storey schools. However, the local authorities decided that school buildings have up to 3 stories at maximum. Only the schools in Hai Ba Trung district have been exceptionally allowed to have 5-storey buildings.

Tien Phong