Removing difficulties in recognizing national standard schools

The new point of Circular 22 recently issued by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is that the authority to recognize schools as meeting national standards will be transferred to the Director of the Department of Education and Training.

From January 25, 2025, Circular No. 22/2024 of the Ministry of Education and Training amending and supplementing a number of articles of the regulations on educational quality assessment and recognition of national standards for kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, high schools and multi-level general schools will officially take effect with a number of new regulations.

In particular, Circular 22 has amended and supplemented the set of assessment criteria to be consistent with current legal documents such as standards on facilities and teaching equipment; regulations on the authority to recognize schools meeting national standards according to decentralization in Decision No. 1015 dated August 30, 2022 of the Prime Minister approving the decentralization plan in handling administrative procedures under the management of ministries and ministerial-level agencies. Accordingly, the authority to recognize schools meeting national standards is decentralized from the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to the Director of the Department of Education and Training. This regulation is consistent with the policy of the Party, the National Assembly and the Government on promoting decentralization and delegation of power in State management.

Statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training show that by May 31, 2024, the results of implementing educational quality assessment and recognizing schools as meeting national standards nationwide achieved a number of results such as: at preschool level, 61.5% of schools passed educational quality assessment and 56.3% of schools met national standards; at primary level, 67.2% of schools passed educational quality assessment and 62.8% of schools met national standards; at secondary level, 72.3% of schools passed educational quality assessment and 72.3% of schools met national standards; at high school level, 56.1% of schools passed educational quality assessment and 49.6% of schools met national standards; at multi-level general schools, 47.1% of schools passed educational quality assessment and 44.2% of schools met national standards.

Compared to the 2022-2023 school year, these rates are mostly higher. Many units have achieved high results in implementing educational quality assessment and recognizing schools as meeting national standards. However, external assessment of preschools and general education institutions has not been implemented evenly among localities. In some localities, the external assessment rate is lower than the national average external assessment rate, such as Bac Kan, Binh Duong, Cao Bang, Dong Thap, Phu Yen, Thua Thien Hue. Funding sources and mechanisms to implement educational quality assessment and build and recognize national standard schools are still difficult.

The investment in education of many local governments is still limited, so some schools have degraded facilities, lack of classrooms, functional room equipment, damaged equipment that has not been supplemented. Previously designed schools are no longer suitable for new regulations, causing difficulties in the work of assessing the quality of education and building schools that meet national standards.

With the change in the authority to recognize schools meeting national standards according to Circular 22, experts expect to remove obstacles and shortcomings from practice because many localities have been merging schools into general schools with many levels. Circular 22 will be a legal corridor, helping the management and direction of State management agencies in this issue to be appropriate, closely following reality with attention to direction, promoting the work of assessing the quality of education and recognizing schools meeting national standards, investing resources for local education from local Party committees and authorities.

From the local side, Mr. Phung Quoc Lap - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Phu Tho informed that the province has a fairly high number of schools that have been externally assessed and recognized as meeting national standards (accounting for 92.5%). To implement this work, the Department has a plan for units to self-assess and externally assess from the previous year to have thorough preparation in all aspects, without too much pressure on time. Regarding the team of managers and teachers trained in educational quality assessment, the whole province currently has over 700 people trained, fostered and granted certificates ready to participate in self-assessment and external assessment...

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/go-kho-cho-viec-cong-nhan-truong-chuan-quoc-gia-10296685.html