VietNamNet Bridge – While some districts in inner Ha Noi lack land to build schools, dozens of pieces of land in the suburbs of the capital city are left fallow, or used for other purposes.

Illustrative image -- File photo

According to local authorities, many schools in inner Ha Noi, such as in the Hoan Kiem and Ba Dinh districts, are seriously overcrowded due to uncontrolled population increase.

Tran Huy Hoang, chairman of the Hoang Liet Ward People’s Committee in Hoang Mai District, told the Tien phong (Vanguard) newspaper that by the end of last year, the district had 32,627 people. However, that number has now blown out to 51,666.

The reason for the increase was a series of new residential quarters in the ward being opened for use in September last year.

“Traffic and education have been put under great pressure recently by the population increase,” said Hoang.

A spokesperson for the Vinh Tuy Ward People’s Committee in Hoang Mai District, said that if all the high-storey buildings in the ward were opened for use, in several years the district’s population could reach nearly 80,000, or four times higher than that of a normal district in the capital.

Of all the districts in inner Ha Noi, Cau Giay and Thanh Xuan had the highest rate of population increase, said a staff member from the local education sector.

Pham Ngoc Anh, director of the Cau Giay Department of Education and Training, said that the district’s population was increasing by 10 per cent a year.

Regulations state that each primary school class should have 35 pupils, but in fact many schools in Ba Dinh, Hoan Kiem, Cau Giay and Dong Da districts have 45-55 pupils in each class.

Fallow land

Observations by the Tien phong (Vanguard) newspaper’s correspondent showed that dozens of pieces of land in developing areas of Ha Noi are left fallow.

Typically, two pieces of land named B9 and C4 in the Nam Trung Yen residential quarter in Cau Giay District, which are scheduled to be used for building schools, are currently being used for parking, football and washing motorbikes.

A spokesman for the Cau Giay District People’s Committee said that 23 pieces of land in the district were scheduled for the building of schools from kindergartens to high schools, but none of the projects have been started.

“Demand for schools in the district has increased sharply, but school building is too slow,” he said.

The building regulations for schools in the inner city were also unreasonable, he said.

Regulations state that kindergartens must be no more than two storeys high, and primary schools must have no more than three storeys. These regulations did not reflect the real situation of land use in the inner city.

The same situation is occurring in other residential quarters such as Viet Hung, Phap Van-Tu Hiep, Van Phu and Dich Vong.

Architect Dao Ngoc Nghiem, deputy chairman of the Ha Noi Urban Planning and Development Association, said that the population in inner districts of the capital has rapidly increased because municipal authorities have not paid enough attention to the distribution of inhabitants.

The rate that school projects are completed is very slow because the authorities have loosened their management of such projects.

“The municipal People’s Committee should bear the responsibility for this,” said Nghiem.

According to analysis by the Urban Planning and Development Association, for each increase in the population of 1,000 people, there will be at least 50 extra students, leading to extra demand for schools.

VNS