Vietnam - City schools overcrowded

State owned schools throughout Ho Chi Minh City suffer from overcrowded classes and shortage of teaching staff.

The city has more than 30,000 students and only 1,095 new classrooms have been added this school year. Construction of new school buildings that kicked off earlier in the year has still not received proper funding.

2,000 primary school children and 1,200 secondary school students have increased in District 12 for the 2011-2012 academic school year.

Le Van Tho primary school has the highest increase of more than 3,800 pupils with only 83 classrooms.

As per regulations for pre-schools, the Ministry of Education and Training expects 35 students per class under two teachers.

Tran Trung Hieu, head of the Department of Education and Training in the district, said that city authorities have not delved into any of the construction projects for primary schools.

Pre-schools in district 8, such as Tho Ngoc, Bong Sao and primary schools such as Rach Ong, Van Nguyen and Thai Hung are in very poor state.

Go Vap District has a shortage of 484 class rooms. There are three wards in the district which still do not have state owned nursery schools. Le Thi Kim Hanh, deputy chairwoman of the Go Vap People’s Committee said that the City People’s Committee has not provided funds for six school construction projects approved in 2010.

At the working session of the Department of Culture, municipal People’s council and Go Vap District authorities, Tran Van Khuyen, deputy secretary of the Go Vap District Party Committee said that local authorities must give top priority to education.

Finding solutions to resolving issues of overcrowded classes was of great urgency, added head of the department of financial planning of the Department of Education and Training of the city, Nguyen Dinh Thai Chau.

By Le Linh

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