The Culture – Society Committee of the Hanoi People’s Council has released a report on supervising the construction of schools in urban areas in the city from 2016 to now.

The report shows that temporary low-quality classrooms in some suburban districts still exist, while many students have to study in borrowed rooms, because their schools cannot arrange enough classrooms for students.

As much as 22 percent of state-owned schools have been found as not having standard toilets. The number of students in each class is up to 60 in many schools, which means that the schools cannot satisfy requirements on the minimum land area per student.

The situation is especially serious in the suburbs, where schools lack classrooms, practice rooms, laboratories and physical exercise houses. The facilities in the schools are also poor, with a shortage of teaching aids and toys.

In principle, investors in new urban area projects have to reserve land area for preschools and general schools. However, in many cases, investors ignore the regulations. In other cases, investors reserve land for schools, but the construction has not started.

In the Linh Dam Lake Southwest Urban Area, for example, six land plots have been reserved for schools. However, only one primary school has been put into operation.

The situation is the same in Viet Hung new urban area. The investor has transferred five land plots for schools to secondary investors, but to date, only one school has been built.

Hanoi authorities have decided to remove production bases and ministries’ head offices out of the inner area and reserve land in the area for public works and social infrastructure items. However, instead of public works, urban areas, commercial works and houses have arisen. As a result, Hanoi still doesn’t have land for schools.

The report pointed out that the city has just built 194 new schools and upgraded 436 schools since 2016.

There are 2,711 schools in Hanoi with 65,818 classrooms, and the average number of students in each class is 39.

Lack of land and money is the biggest problem for Hanoi in developing schools. The schools in inner city lack land, while the ones in the suburbs lack money.

According to deputy chair of Hai Ba Trung district Vu Van Hoat, there are 45 students in each class in the district, while under the current regulation, the figure must not be higher than 35.

In Thanh Xuan district, according to the district’s education subdepartment head Pham Gia Huu, the local budget allocated to education always accounts for 60 percent, but it is difficult to find land for schols. In Dang Tran Con, Thanh Xuan Trung and Phan Dinh Giot schools, classrooms are crowded with 60 students.

Hoan Chau

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Students at a meeting with the leaders of HCM City some days ago raised thorny questions and expressed thier wishes that adults have ignored for a long time.

Vietnam urged to merge some schools, maintain fewer state-owned schools

Merging schools with the same majors to form multi-disciplinary schools and cutting the number of state-owned schools to more effectively allocate resources should be done immediately, experts say.