As of December 31, 2025, all 34 provinces and centrally-run cities had approved realignment plans, reducing 457 preschools, 914 general education institutions, and 709 leadership and management positions nationwide.

Recently, the Ministry issued guidelines for localities to continue realigning their educational institution networks, aiming to reduce organizational units by a minimum of 30 percent, and by approximately 50 percent in favorable areas compared to July 1, 2025. This equates to a reduction of over 11,000 schools, scheduled for completion before August 30, 2026.

VietNamNet spoke with Dr. Vu Minh Duc, director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators (Ministry of Education and Training - MOET), about the implementation of the policy.

What benefits will the nationwide school network realignment bring, along with the reassignment of over 20,000 managers?

This realignment is not simply a mechanical merger to reduce organizational units. Most importantly, it changes the educational model and school governance methods to elevate educational quality. This process aims for multiple goals and yields numerous benefits.

First, it streamlines the organizational apparatus, selecting exceptional management personnel to lead and operate the new school model.

Second, school autonomy and accountability will be enhanced, while technology application in management will be promoted to reduce administrative procedures in school operations, allowing a primary focus on teaching and learning activities.

Third, it optimizes personnel and bolsters the teaching force by leveraging former managers, who are highly capable teachers grown through past operational leadership. This helps alleviate current teacher surpluses and shortages while cutting unnecessary expenses.

How has the Ministry gauged the thoughts and aspirations of managers, teachers, and staff, and what policies have been proposed?

Realigning the network of preschool, general education, and vocational training institutions is truly a revolution. This inevitably impacts a portion of managers, teachers, and school staff. MOET is advising competent authorities to promulgate appropriate policies aligned with the restructuring process, minimizing negative impacts on the livelihoods of school managers and teachers.

With a revolution of such scale, teachers, educational managers, and school staff may have to accept a slight compromise on personal interests. Ultimately, the shared goal is to make the educational system progressively better, ensure smoother operations, and deliver higher quality to foster human resources for the country. I believe that teachers, educational managers, and school staff all understand and stand ready to join hands in making this revolution a success.

In principle, existing schools will become satellite campuses of the main school branch. Thus, the actual number of learning sites remains unchanged, and students continue studying at their familiar locations. Parents can rest assured regarding their children's education, as commuting conditions and educational quality will remain uncompromised.

Realigning educational institutions into large-scale schools will follow two models: large-scale single-level schools with multiple satellite campuses, or large-scale multi-level schools. The Ministry respects local choices based on specific conditions.

It is expected that over 20,000 managers will be reassigned, including about 11,000 returning to direct teaching. What criteria will determine the selection of new school heads?

Personnel placement during network restructuring is indeed a challenging problem, requiring precise, objective, transparent, and fair evaluation of school managers' capabilities.

By evaluating principals' achievements and contributions over recent years, local authorities have a solid foundation to select heads for new educational institutions without requiring competitive examinations initially. However, once the new model operates stably, competitive exams for principal appointments can be considered for new terms.

Establishing large-scale schools demands higher governance capabilities from principals. What plans does the Ministry have to elevate governance capacity for post-merger managers?

Operating under a new framework requires principals to master new competencies, shifting from conventional administrative management to strategic school governance. The Ministry will soon roll out training plans to enhance principal capacity, focusing on six core competencies:

Shift in perception: Transitioning from administrative management thinking to governance

Strategic planning and school development: Including planning, implementation, brand building, and risk management.

Staff management and development: Ranging from motivating and delegating power to teachers to continuous professional development and evaluating performance based on student progress.

Financial and asset governance: Tailored for large-scale school models with sizable workforces.

Quality management: Assessing overall educational quality advancement.

Communications and partnership development: Including fostering relationships with parents and students, and mobilizing resources to build the educational environment.

Thanh Hung