Crowded, rundown
Arriving at Van Lang Secondary School, Tan Dinh Ward, District 1, we could not believe that the school located in the city center had facilities far inferior to those in the suburbs. The school campus is about 1,000 square meters (including 2 AB blocks with 16 classrooms and 4 functional rooms...) and is struggling to support 650 students.
The classroom is called a “bird cage” because it has an area of only 30-32m2 but has up to 45 students. Some classrooms and damp equipment rooms are “hidden” in the corners of 2 buildings. More worryingly, the corridors on the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floors are less than 1m wide, the school had to reinforce the 1.6m high guardrail system to keep students safe. The worst thing is that in area A, the 2nd and 3rd floors do not have toilets for students.
“Before I came to work, the school only had one restroom in area B. In order to not let this situation continue, with the support of the district, the school has just renovated the classroom space and invested in building two more restrooms. However, the difficulties are still numerous!”, said Mr. Tran Ngoc Lam, the school’s principal.
Mr. Lam added: “In addition to the seriously degraded facilities due to over 50 years of use, teacher recruitment is equally difficult. In 2023, the school registered to recruit 10 teachers, but no one applied. Regarding the quota, the district divides grade 6 with an average of 200 students/school year, but every year only recruits 50%-70%.”
According to the District 1 Construction Investment Management Board, Van Lang Secondary School was approved by the District 1 People's Committee in 2017 for an investment of 49 billion VND, with a scale of 1 basement and 4 floors. When the board coordinated with related units of the district to implement the project, many difficulties arose, such as 2 households living in the school grounds, while the compensation and compensation for them was not allocated in the total investment, leading to the project being unable to be implemented.
“The district has proposed to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee and the Department of Planning and Investment to approve the adjustment from new construction to repair and renovation with a total investment of over VND23 billion. District 1 hopes that the city will soon approve this plan,” said Mr. Pham Quach Truong Giang, Director of the District 1 Construction Investment Management Board.
In addition to Van Lang Secondary School, District 1 also has many schools in the form of old townhouses, villas, built before liberation... facing many difficulties in expanding and building new ones due to lack of land fund, and being restricted in height such as Tuoi Hong Kindergarten, Nguyen Hue Primary School, Dong Khoi Secondary School, Chu Van An Secondary School, Duc Tri Secondary School.
Not to mention, when building a new school, it must meet the criteria according to new regulations and the number of classrooms is reduced. When the district sought solutions, such as buying back land from neighboring households to expand the school, it also encountered problems. The people agreed, but then the conversion procedure became too complicated and prolonged, so they changed their minds and did not sell.
Ms. Bui Thi Thanh, Principal of Nguyen Hue Primary School, shared: “The school’s facilities are currently very degraded due to more than 50 years of use, but teachers and students always strive to overcome difficulties and maintain teaching and learning results in the top of the district. Our hope is that the project to build a new school with a scale of 30 classrooms, fully equipped with functional rooms, will soon have the departments and branches remove difficulties and obstacles so that the district can implement the new construction in the near future.”
Urgent need
“You guys try to speed up cutting, trimming, and cleaning that area to prevent mosquitoes from breeding and becoming an epidemic hotbed,” said Nguyen Quoc Thong, Chairman of Ward 27 People’s Committee, Binh Thanh, encouraging the group of youth volunteers and militia to soon complete the work in the old Thanh Da High School campus. In the past 7 years, after Thanh Da High School was rebuilt and relocated to a more spacious facility, the old school became a “burden” for the locality.
The school was abandoned, with weeds growing wildly, especially during the rainy season; not to mention the cases of vagrants cutting through the gate to illegally reside there. The ward chairman was always worried about fire and explosions, and ensuring public safety. On average, twice a year, ward 27 would clean up and do a general cleaning, but after a while, everything would go back to the way it was because there was no one to take care of it or clean it.
“The ward has 21,000 people and enough public schools at all three levels, but all are overloaded. Many schools are in disrepair and do not ensure teaching and learning, while the old Thanh Da High School, with an area of over 2,100 square meters, has been vacant since 2017, which is a huge waste,” said Mr. Thong.
In District 6, Tran Van Kieu Primary School was newly built in 2003, with a scale of 1 ground floor, 2 floors, 26 classrooms with full functional rooms, total construction cost of nearly 20 billion VND on an area of 6,500m2 , and put into use in 2004. However, by 2008, the school stopped operating because the project had subsidence, causing damage to the load-bearing structure system, the covering system, auxiliary works such as the yard, toilets, emergency stairs..., and has been vacant until now.
To find a way out for this school, in recent years, District 6 has issued many strong directives, proposed many solutions and sent them to the city and related departments to put the repair project back into operation as soon as possible. The city has directed the Department of Finance and the Department of Construction to advise on the acceptance and settlement of the project according to the recommendations of the People's Committee of District 6.
“It is expected that after the acceptance and final settlement, the district will take the initiative in implementing the investment in the construction of a new school in the 2025-2030 period. At the same time, it will propose a public investment policy in the coming period with a total budget of about 95 billion VND. However, up to now, the progress of acceptance and final settlement of the project has not progressed,” Mr. Huynh Minh Hung, Vice Chairman of District 6 People's Committee, informed.
- Mr. DANG TAN HAI, Director of Construction Investment Management Board of Binh Thanh District:
There is a plan to rebuild the old Thanh Da High School.
The old Thanh Da High School (Binh Thanh District) has a policy to invest in new construction, converting it into Kindergarten 27B, with a total investment of nearly 55 billion VND. The project is expected to be implemented and completed within the 2022-2024 plan if approved, the project investment policy is approved and capital is allocated to prepare for investment in the second quarter of 2022. However, after consulting with departments and branches on this project, the district received feedback: The project has not been approved for investment policy because it is not suitable for the 1/2000 planning. Binh Thanh District continues to have a document requesting the city to direct departments and branches to remove obstacles, approve the investment policy to soon start building the new school.
- Ms. LE THI THU SUONG, Vice Chairman of Tan Binh District People's Committee:
Hope to receive the consensus of the people
According to the School Network Planning Project of Tan Binh District, since 2002, Ward 15 has been planned to build a cluster of schools, including: Tran Thai Tong Secondary School and Tan Son High School. Tan Binh District has had many working sessions with 81 households affected by school construction projects, but the households have not agreed with the level of support from the city. Meanwhile, it is expected that by 2028, Ward 15 will need 76 new classrooms to accommodate 3,392 students. The District is advising the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to apply the special mechanism of Resolution 98 in supporting site clearance, adjusting the detailed planning project 1/500 from building 2 schools to 1 school (secondary school) meeting national standards. Hopefully, people will understand the urgent need for schools in the district to agree, so that this school construction project can be implemented soon.
AN KHANH
QUANG HUY
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ky-vong-4500-phong-hoc-moi-o-tphcm-bai-3-giai-cuu-nhung-phong-hoc-chuong-chim-post761649.html
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