Vietnam plans to apply the new education program

Many educators and experts have voiced concerns, saying that existing problems may make it difficult to implement the program effectively.

Large cities are believed to have better conditions than rural areas to implement the new education program. But the localities are facing big problems caused by the shortage of classrooms. 

Because of the poor facilities, classrooms are getting more overloaded with 50-60 students in every class. The number of students plus cramped classrooms will make it difficult to apply the new education program which requires new teaching methods. 

The headmaster of Hai Boi Primary School Bui Thi Sinh confirmed that there are 50 students in every class in her school.

A leader of the Nam Thanh Cong Primary School in Hanoi, while emphasizing that overloading is a common problem of most of state-owned schools in the city, said this will hinder the new program implementation.

Overloading is not a problems for rural schools, but they face other problems, including the poor facilities and lack of teaching aids. 

Prof Nguyen Minh Thuyet, chief editor of the new general education program, also expressed his concern about the poor facilities.

“We strongly recommend localities, especially Hanoi, to reduce the number of students in every class. If schools continue maintaining classes with 50-60 students per class, there will be no way to organize groups of students in classes,” he said.

Under the current regulations, there must not be more than 35 students per class in primary schools and no more than 40-45 students in secondary and high schools. 

However, the real number of students in every class is much higher because of the lack of classrooms and teaching staff. 

Fully equipped classrooms with machines and computers are one of the requirements to implement the new education program. 

Meanwhile, temporary classrooms still exist in many schools in the northeast, northwest, Central Highlands and the southwest. Even in Hanoi, many schools are in bad condition after a long period of decline and no maintenance.

The Ministry of Education and Training has reassured the public that the problems will be settled as it has submitted to the government a project on improving facilities at schools. 

Local authorities have been asked to check the need for facilities and teaching aids at local schools. 

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