VietNamNet Bridge – The Department of Education and Training will choose several schools in HCM City's inner districts as model projects that will be expanded throughout the city by 2020.

He said the schools would train staff in values and ethics. The high-quality schools must meet minimum standards for facilities, teaching staff, management and training programmes and have high co-operation between schools, families and society.

Class size will be reduced to 20 students, and teaching staff will have to meet both ethical and professional qualifications.

Advantages

The city had several advantages for creating such schools, Minh said. For example, the number of primary teachers who meet the ministry's standards accounts for 60 per cent; kindergarten teachers, 30 per cent; high school teachers, 40 per cent; and vocational teachers, 20 per cent.

The department has been opening more training courses to increase the rate of teachers who meet the ministry's standards, Minh said.

Some schools have been applying the new teaching methods, including teaching according to each individual or teaching many subjects during one period.

The schools include the Luong Dinh Cua Primary School in District 3, the Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School in District 1, Nguyen Van Troi Primary School in District 4, the Le Quy Don High School in District 3, and the Thanh Loc High School in District 12.

Besides the Ministry of Education and Training's training programme, the city has its own special council that creates training courses to correspond to the actual ability of students.

The city's schools also have been changing management methods as required by the ministry, Minh said.

Co-operation between schools and families as well as society has also been good, he added.

However, representatives of schools said reducing classroom size to 20 students would be difficult because the city was faced with a shortage of classrooms.

Each year, the city's budget spends around 20 per cent on building and upgrading schools, and each district has made detailed plans for schools, many of which began in 2003.

There are more than 1,500 schools at all levels from kindergarten and continuing education throughout the city.

The average number of children in kindergarten classes is 30; at the primary level, 38; at high school, 47.

Eighty per cent of the teachers teach during the entire day at the primary level, and 30 per cent at the high school level.

At the workshop, Minh noted that schools implementing the new high-quality model must explain the benefits of higher standards so that they can understand the need for higher tuition.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News