Students at Rach Gia Primary School (Binh Chanh District, Ho Chi Minh City), a spacious school with an investment of 131 billion VND, covering nearly 12,000 square meters, has just been newly built to be put into use this school year.
Why consider carefully?
In the context of Ho Chi Minh City increasing its student population by an average of 20,000-40,000 students each year, ensuring enough school space to meet demand is the top concern of the city's leaders. However, the special difficulties in land area for construction as well as Circular 13 of the Ministry of Education and Training not being suitable to the reality in Ho Chi Minh City have created pressure on the lack of schools, forcing leaders at all levels to come up with short-term solutions.
Accordingly, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai recently said that the city will consider the option of building "field" schools in some densely populated areas. The "field" schools will operate for a certain period of time from 5 to 10 years until the need is gone. Although called "field", the quality must be good, ensure safety and meet the needs of teaching and learning before new schools are built, Mr. Mai affirmed.
Previously, Mr. Trinh Vinh Thanh, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Go Vap District, stated that many schools in this district have applied the "dynamic" classroom model to temporarily solve the shortage of classrooms. Specifically, during physical education and computer science classes, students will move to specialized classrooms, leaving the normal classrooms empty. From here, students from other classes will be transferred to study in the empty classrooms.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai (middle) at the inauguration ceremony of Rach Gia Primary School on September 5.
Models such as "dynamic" classrooms or "field" schools are considered temporary and feasible solutions, with the characteristic of taking advantage of empty spaces to reduce the pressure of a shortage of classrooms in Ho Chi Minh City. However, managers must carefully consider to eliminate risk factors, according to Dr. Nguyen Vinh Quang, majoring in educational management at the University of Hertfordshire (UK), currently Director of the Mr.Q International Vocational Education Organization.
Specifically, "dynamic" classrooms can flexibly allocate students, but teachers need to pay attention to coordinating students between classes to ensure that they are not too interrupted. On the other hand, renovating the space to create a "field" school must commit to not affecting the quality of teaching and learning, as well as ensuring the safety and health of both teachers and students.
Furthermore, for the models to address school pressure effectively, Mr. Quang said that there are many groups of factors that need attention. For example, it is necessary to invest in teacher training and development to ensure that teachers are capable of participating in and operating the model. "In addition, it is necessary to regularly monitor and evaluate the performance of the models during operation to make timely adjustments and improvements," the education expert commented.
Teachers, managers, social organizations and businesses are the factors that need to participate in solving the pressure of lack of schools, according to experts.
In addition to the above short-term models, Dr. Quang believes that there should be many long-term solutions to completely solve the problem of lack of schools in Ho Chi Minh City, with the participation of many parties. First of all, the education sector needs to have more measures to optimize the use of available resources such as empty classrooms, while increasing budget investment in infrastructure to increase classrooms, such as building new schools or renovating old schools.
Another aspect mentioned by Mr. Quang is the application of technology in education, such as supporting remote teaching or creating virtual classrooms when necessary. At the same time, managers also need to support research and innovation projects in education to create sustainable improvements.
"The education sector also needs to cooperate with social organizations and businesses from other fields to support the construction and maintenance of schools," Dr. Quang said.
Lessons from other countries
According to Mr. Quang, the pressure of lack of schools is not only a story of Ho Chi Minh City, but also occurs commonly in some developed countries such as the US, Finland, Japan or South Korea. The way these countries solve this problem can be a lesson for the Ho Chi Minh City education sector to refer to and promote in its overall development plan.
Not only a story of Ho Chi Minh City, the pressure of lack of schools is also a problem of some developed countries.
For example, Finland has successfully reduced the pressure of school shortages by adopting a system of “beat-structured schools”, commonly known as “Finnish Peruskoulu”, for students aged 7 to 16. This system allows education administrators to use the same building for multiple purposes, including basic education and secondary education, thereby optimizing the use of space.
In the US, many school districts have implemented temporary classrooms, using corporate offices or other spaces to meet teaching and learning needs. This model is somewhat similar to the "field" school plan in Ho Chi Minh City. "In addition, the education sector in this country has also expanded school hours to flexibly use existing schools," Dr. Quang informed.
Virtual classrooms combined with flexible schedules for distance learning are South Korea’s options to ease the pressure of a shortage of classrooms. Meanwhile, Japan is taking advantage of rural and suburban areas to build temporary schools, ensuring universal education for all students before new, spacious schools are built, education experts say.
Previously, in the school construction plan, Ho Chi Minh City set a goal of completing the construction of 4,500 new classrooms by 2025, an increase of 3,537 classrooms compared to the present. In the 2023-2024 school year alone, the city will put 48 schools into use, with a total of 512 newly built classrooms, an increase of 367 classrooms compared to before. The new schools put into use are concentrated in districts 5, 10, Binh Thanh, Hoc Mon district and Thu Duc city.
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