No classroom shortage for long

In recent years, every time a new school year begins, localities in Hai Duong province often face a shortage of classrooms. Hai Duong has been implementing a project to build and supplement classrooms in educational institutions in the province for the period 2020-2025, but the results have not been as expected.

According to the report of the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong, for preschool and primary education, districts, towns and cities in the province have paid attention to investing in construction, reaching a ratio of approximately 1 room/class. For secondary school level, localities have achieved 0.8-1 room/class (according to the minimum regulation of 0.6). However, in the province, there are still 3 units with low room/class ratio at secondary school level: Kinh Mon 0.56; Kim Thanh 0.55; Ninh Giang 0.54 room/class. In the 2023-2024 school year, in Hai Duong province, at the 3 levels of preschool, primary and secondary school, there are 180 semi-permanent classrooms, 135 temporary classrooms, 282 borrowed, rented classrooms and 404 classrooms under construction.

Hai Duong is a new rural province, so it cannot afford to have a shortage of classrooms for a long time. This problem has a significant impact on the quality of care and education in schools. In particular, the lack of classrooms at preschool and primary levels, which do not meet the living and learning conditions of children, further affects the quality of care and education for children.

In fact, in some places, the investment in infrastructure for schools and public educational institutions has not really been a top priority. In the new rural construction, the debt of school infrastructure criteria is not an isolated case. Many places only started construction and laid the foundations for classrooms and then had to stop due to lack of capital. In some localities, the commune headquarters are the most beautiful in the district, but the school infrastructure is the most difficult and lacking in the province.

Many solutions are needed to improve the quality and effectiveness of education and training, but perhaps the most urgent is to ensure facilities, quickly end and not let the situation of classroom shortages happen again, forcing students to study in temporary, borrowed, or rented rooms.

To overcome the shortage of classrooms, Hai Duong set a target that by the end of 2025, the whole province will invest in building 265 solid, standard classrooms to ensure enough classrooms to meet the scale of the 2025-2026 school year for most preschools and secondary schools with a total of temporary classrooms, borrowed classrooms, and classrooms lacking 3 or more classrooms. The total estimated budget to achieve the above goal is nearly 192 billion VND.

With the province's budget capacity, the cost to achieve the above goal is not too large. The important thing is that all levels, sectors and the entire political system need to really care, give maximum priority and speed up the process to complete the above goal.

At the opening ceremony of the 2023-2024 school year, Hai Duong Provincial Party Secretary Tran Duc Thang emphasized that the province will create the best conditions for the development of education and training. The Standing Committee of Hai Duong Provincial Party Committee assigned the Party Committee of the Provincial People's Committee to direct specialized agencies to research and advise on the development of a number of mechanisms and policies for education and training.

The policies, strategies and mechanisms that come into practice soon will contribute significantly to improving the quality and effectiveness of the province's education and training work, meeting the people's expectations, and helping to create the spirit of "every day at school is a happy day" for teachers and students in the province. The progress and results of the goal of eliminating the shortage of classrooms are the clearest measure of the attention and responsibility of Party committees, authorities, sectors and localities towards the cause of "growing people" in Hai Duong.