Hai Duong lacks teaching equipment according to the new program

Design your own teaching equipment

In a class at Phuc Thanh Primary School (Kim Thanh), students were excited about the water filtration model designed by teacher Nguyen Thi Thuan.

Students took turns scooping water into the “mini” water filter and learning about the water filtration process under the guidance of the teacher. Nguyen Viet Anh, a student at Phuc Thanh Primary School, said: “I really enjoy learning with the teacher’s self-made models. Through the models, we can understand, visualize and remember knowledge better.”

Teacher Thuan said that before teaching theory or using TV to show images and videos of water purifiers, students still found it difficult to understand. Teacher Thuan has been experimenting with designing a water purifier model using drinking water bottles as teaching equipment.

“Each student is assigned the task of preparing water, gravel, and coal to put into the jar to carry out the water filtration process, so they can acquire knowledge faster, in line with the innovative spirit of the new 2018 general education program, promoting their qualities and abilities,” said teacher Thuan.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Huong, Principal of Phuc Thanh Primary School, said the water filter model is just one of many homemade tools that teachers have painstakingly designed. But this is only a temporary solution; to be truly effective, teaching equipment according to the list issued by the Ministry of Education and Training is still needed.

Similarly, in a class at Tan Binh Secondary School (Hai Duong City), simple, colorful cardboard cards made the lesson about chemical elements more interesting. Teacher Nguyen Thi Hiep, a teacher at Tan Binh Secondary School, said she designed the table of chemical elements herself to teach her students. The vivid visual images help students understand more easily.

“Natural science is made up of three subjects: physics, chemistry, and biology. To organize good teaching, there must be equipment and teaching aids. Because of the lack of equipment, teachers have overcome this by promoting the exploitation of information technology in teaching, making teaching aids, reusing old equipment, and conducting experiments on the internet…”, Ms. Hiep said.

Ms. Vu Thi Thuy Huong, Principal of Tan Binh Primary School, said that while waiting for the provision of teaching equipment according to the new curriculum, every year the school tries to balance the budget to purchase equipment that teachers cannot design. All classrooms are equipped with projectors and televisions to support teachers in teaching. "We always try to overcome this, we cannot let teachers and students teach and learn without permission," Ms. Huong said.

Equipment supply needed soon

The Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong has also directed immediate solutions for educational institutions to manufacture products, create prototypes, build models for experiments; increase the application of information technology, utilize old equipment... to overcome the shortage of teaching equipment.

According to Hai Duong Newspaper reporters, all schools have done a good job of professional training according to modules; making the most of existing teaching equipment, using old equipment that is still suitable for teaching; flexibly using personal computers to download illustrations that are familiar and practical for students from the internet; proactively making their own pictures, tools, specimens... to meet the goals of the 2018 general education program.

Ms. Mac Thi Trang, a natural science teacher at Pham Su Manh Secondary School (Kinh Mon), said that because they have not been provided with teaching equipment as required, teachers are having to make their own equipment. This means that teachers are under more pressure at work, students are disadvantaged, and the quality of education will be affected to some extent.

"We hope to soon be provided with teaching equipment so that teachers and students can ensure the best learning conditions," teacher Trang shared.

It is known that the province has allocated more than 204 billion VND to purchase teaching equipment according to the new program. However, the purchase is facing difficulties due to many objective reasons.

According to the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong, only teaching equipment has been provided for grade 1, the remaining grades have not yet been provided. The procurement is difficult due to many issues such as building an estimate for equipment procurement, price appraisal to determine the bid price... In fact, recently, many price appraisal enterprises have violated the bidding process for educational and medical equipment... so the price appraisal units are cautious and have stopped operating.

The Department of Education and Training has publicly announced the selection of a unit to appraise the price of teaching equipment, but few units have submitted documents. On the other hand, the documents regulating bidding are newly issued, so the understanding and grasp of bidding regulations by investors as well as related units is still limited, making it easy for errors to occur during the implementation process. In particular, the value of the equipment procurement package is very large, according to the limits prescribed by the new Bidding Law, organizing the bidding to select a contractor to supply equipment is very complicated and time-consuming.

With the above reality, the implementation of equipment procurement needs to be carefully considered, cautious, ensuring regulations but also need solutions to speed up progress to meet the requirements of the new general education program.