Many "half-laughing, half-crying" situations

In recent days, the incident at Tay Mo 3 Primary School, Nam Tu Liem District has attracted special attention from the public. In a ward of 70,000 people with dozens of high-rise apartment buildings built close together, there are only 2 public primary schools, the lack of schools has been seen for a long time. After a period of waiting, the newly built Tay Mo 3 public primary school has come into operation, bringing excitement to residents. Many parents secretly thought that from this school year, their children would no longer have to go to school 4-5 km away from home with a road full of trucks and dust, but would only have to walk a few hundred meters to school. However, when they went to the school to submit their applications, they received the information: Tay Mo 3 Primary School had met its quota, this year the school only recruited 1st graders and each class only arranged 35 students.

According to information from the People's Committee of Nam Tu Liem District, Tay Mo 3 Primary School was separated from Tay Mo Primary School, so it received 1,111 quotas from this school; of which, 100% of students in grades 2, 3, 4, 5 transferred from Tay Mo Primary School and 460 students in grade 1 (received admission from this school before). Not accepting the above reasoning, hundreds of parents gathered at Tay Mo 3 Primary School to hear a satisfactory answer from the local government. The People's Committee of Nam Tu Liem District and the Department of Education and Training of the district have calculated, reviewed, and carefully come up with the most optimal solution, resolving the wishes of parents and ensuring the right to study of students.

The incident at Tay Mo 3 Primary School is a fairly typical story, reflecting the current lack of public schools in Hanoi, especially in areas with rapid development and many apartment buildings. However, the situation of gathering, queuing in large numbers, even breaking down school gates, with the purpose of submitting school applications for their children happened more than a decade ago at the Experimental Secondary School in Hanoi. And during the 2023 enrollment season, the scene of parents lining up overnight to submit school applications for their children also happened continuously in the inner city area.

Remember, in June 2023, about 200 parents lined up from evening until overnight at the gate of Van Bao Primary School, Ha Dong District, hoping to submit their children's applications for first grade. One of them, Mr. Nguyen Van Truong, residing in Ha Dong District, recounted: "On the afternoon of June 12, everyone lined up in an orderly manner, whispering to each other very intimately, but after a night of struggling, in the early morning of June 13, when the school started accepting applications, some people who arrived later jostled and pushed, causing the atmosphere at the school gate to become chaotic, some people were even squeezed to the point of tearing their shirts. The situation only calmed down after the ward police force arrived to ask parents to calm down and maintain order."

The situation of lining up at the school gate with plastic chairs and drinking water because they were determined to stay up all night happened on July 5, 2023 at the gate of Hoang Cau High School (Dong Da District). With the desire to win a place to submit their children's application for grade 10, many parents had been waiting at the school gate since the evening of July 4, lining up overnight to wait for dawn. They held out until nearly 11:00 a.m. on July 5, the weather reached nearly 40 degrees, the group was exhausted, sweating like a shower, their faces grimaced but determined not to leave their positions to submit their applications.

In addition to the haunting scene of students lining up all night to submit their applications, Hanoi also has a "unique" situation in enrollment, which is drawing lots to win a place at a public kindergarten. This ironic situation occurred at Hoang Liet Kindergarten, Hoang Mai District on the morning of August 27, 2022. According to the explanation of the Board of Directors, the reason for the lucky draw is because in the 2022-2023 school year, Hoang Liet Kindergarten received 226 applications of 5-year-old children, an increase of 100 compared to the expected number. For the two groups of 4- and 3-year-old children, the number of applications was 290 and 423, respectively (it was expected to enroll only 88 and 245 children, respectively). Thus, the school had 380 applications exceeding the target because the total number of students that can be accepted according to regulations is 559 children aged 3-5. The lottery for kindergarten places was tense, dramatic, and involved a lot of sweat and tears from parents.

In the document guiding the implementation of the 2024-2025 school year program for primary schools, the Ministry of Education and Training once again reiterated the old regulation in the Primary School Charter, which is that the number of students per class should not exceed 35 students and required schools nationwide to implement it. Following the above information, teachers and parents of public schools in Hanoi's inner city all said that the regulation on the number of students at all levels is only feasible for schools in suburban areas, while in inner-city districts, due to the rapid population growth rate, especially the rapid increase in mechanical population, the number of students per class can hardly meet the requirements.

Assessing the impact of school overload on student health, specialist doctor Nguyen Linh, Hospital 198 - Ministry of Public Security, said that students having to sit in crowded places; desks and chairs placed close together, placed near the blackboard... are among the factors affecting eye diseases in children. Through a survey, many primary school classes in Hanoi have more than 85% of students with refractive errors, mainly nearsightedness and having to wear glasses.

Exceeding the number of students per class is also the reason that hinders the process of new recognition and re-recognition of national standard schools (CQG) of many schools in the inner city districts. For more than ten years, Cau Giay has always been the leading unit in the city in terms of education quality, both general and spearhead, but the rate of schools achieving CQG in this district is very modest, not to mention, the district is always struggling to maintain standards.

In the 2022-2023 school year, Cau Giay district has 99 schools (an increase of 4 schools compared to the previous school year). By September 2022, the total number of schools meeting national standards in the district was 20 (6 kindergartens, 7 primary schools, 7 secondary schools), accounting for 20%; of which there were only 12 public schools. Reporting to the Hanoi People's Council Survey Team in October 2022, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Cau Giay district Pham Ngoc Anh said that public schools in the district have not been recognized as national standards because the number of students per class exceeds the regulations and there is a lack of functional rooms. Some schools are too small, lacking space for activities while some newly established schools have not been operating for the required period of time.

Lack of schools has become a “keyword” mentioned at conferences on culture and society of the city in general and conferences of the education and training sector in particular. This is also a worry and concern of the people of the capital, especially before each new admission period.