“Standard + standard = non-standard”
Recently, the Cultural and Social Committee of the People’s Council of Hai Duong province monitored the construction of national standard schools for the period 2020 – 2024 in the province. Through monitoring, the problem of the rate of schools meeting standards gradually decreasing, schools losing standards, and difficulty achieving standards due to mergers emerged as an unsolvable problem.
In Cam Giang district, the merger of commune-level administrative units and school mergers in the 2019 – 2021 period has caused many preschools and primary schools to exceed their scale, so they cannot strive to build schools that meet national standards. Typically, Tan Truong Kindergarten exceeds 10 groups and classes; Dinh Son Kindergarten surpassed 6 groups and classes; Lai Cach Kindergarten surpasses 5 groups and classes.
Some schools have met national standards, but after the merger, when the test period exceeded the number of groups and classes, they lost standards such as Primary Schools: Tan Truong, Luong Dien, Lai Cach…
In Kinh Mon town, due to the merger of schools at the same level, Quang Thanh, Pham Thai, An Phu Kindergarten and Minh Tan Primary School have group and class sizes that exceed the regulations and are not eligible for admission. recommended for recognition as meeting national standards.
In March 2024, Thanh Hai Kindergarten (Thanh Ha) also lost national standards after 5 years due to the merger of 2 preschools and exceeding the number of groups and classes according to Circular No. 13/2020/TT-BGDDT dated May 26, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training promulgating regulations on physical facilities standards for preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and high schools with many levels of education.
The current situation in the three localities above is a common difficulty in building standard schools in Hai Duong today. The whole province currently has 184 schools that have not met national standards, 61 schools are expected to not meet national standards when re-accreditation is due, mainly due to exceeding the number of classes.
Should schools be merged?
Currently, the whole province has 184 schools that do not meet standards, equal to nearly 22% of the total number of schools in the province. The number of schools meeting standards at all four levels of preschool, primary school, middle school and high school has not met the target set by the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term. Some localities and schools are worried that the rate of schools that do not meet standards will increase if school mergers are carried out when merging commune-level administrative units in the period 2023 – 2025.
Some localities and schools in the province proposed not to merge preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools in newly established communes and towns to stabilize the implementation of the 2018 general education program and build The school meets national standards. At the same time, avoid difficulties when teachers and students have to teach and learn in scattered and degraded schools while funds cannot be invested in a spacious central school when merged.
At the supervision session of the Cultural and Social Committee of the People’s Council of Hai Duong province, Mr. Do Duy Hung, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training emphasized that school mergers need to be considered thoroughly and carefully for each specific case. can. “For schools that are small and too scattered, they need to merge to focus on management, investment, and improve operational efficiency. If the two schools are spacious, have good facilities, and meet standards, then merge. If it becomes a non-standard school, it should not merge. Inter-level schools should not merge either,” Mr. Hung stated.
In the recent period, some localities did not closely follow the instructions of the Department of Education and Training when implementing school mergers. Going forward, the Departments of Education and Training need to drastically advise the Party Committee and local authorities on the policy of merging schools when merging communes for each specific case to avoid the situation of schools losing standards when merging. .
Statistics from the Department of Education and Training show that the whole province currently has 67 schools exceeding their size, mainly at the preschool and elementary levels. Besides the advantages such as reducing focal points and streamlining the apparatus, the merger of schools in the previous period is still a difficult “problem” as it causes many schools to “lose standards and become difficult to standardize”.
According to the Project to arrange commune-level administrative units for the period 2023-2025 in Hai Duong province approved by the Provincial People’s Council on the afternoon of April 24, the Provincial People’s Committee assigned the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs and other agencies. , relevant units develop instructions for implementing the arrangement and reorganization of public educational institutions in the commune-level administrative units subject to arrangement according to the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training. Based on this guidance, districts, cities and towns review and develop plans and report to competent authorities for appraisal. On the basis of the evaluated plan, the People’s Committees of districts, towns and cities develop projects to arrange and reorganize public educational institutions in the commune-level administrative areas subject to goal-based arrangement. Resolution 19-NQ/TW and implementation organization.
SNOW FONG
