The above content was clearly stated by the Ministry of Education and Training when assessing the general implementation of the arrangement and organization of preschool, general education, and continuing education institutions according to the 2-level government model.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, some communes and wards have been merged reasonably, reducing the situation of disruption, many small-scale schools below the standard have been merged, consolidated, and converted into models.
Initially streamlining administrative focal points and management staff, the merger has significantly reduced the number of principals, accountants, treasurers, and administrative service staff; thereby reducing management costs, saving regular spending to focus resources on professional activities.
The number of teachers and staff in educational institutions in the same area has been reallocated, initially overcoming the shortage and surplus of teachers in some educational institutions.
In addition to the achieved results, the Ministry of Education and Training acknowledged that the work of arranging public educational institutions still has many limitations in implementation, potentially affecting teaching and learning organization and ensuring educational security, especially in disadvantaged areas and densely populated urban areas.
The merger of public educational institutions in some localities still shows signs of being hasty and lacking in caution. In particular, some localities have reorganized and reduced the number of schools in the direction of " mechanism" to unbalance the scale of classes and school locations, potentially overloading facilities and affecting teaching quality.
The rate of school mergers is high, far exceeding professional recommendations, causing imbalance in scale. After the arrangement, many educational institutions have more classes or school scores than the scale prescribed in. Some schools currently have up to 9 Vice Principals (3 times higher than the regulations). Some units have not yet adjusted their personnel structure, and their organizational structure is unstable.
The merger is likely to affect the model of ethnic boarding and semi-boarding schools and beneficiaries of ethnic minority policies. Although the number of school focal points has decreased, the investment in expanding classrooms and boarding kitchens at the new school has not been implemented in a timely manner,...
The large-scale, short-term merger can disrupt the team, students and parents; somewhat affect the psychology, teaching quality and stability of educational institutions. The potential risk of quality differences and learning opportunities between favorable and disadvantaged areas is increasing, especially in places where traffic and boarding conditions are not guaranteed,...
To overcome the above difficulties and shortcomings, the Ministry of Education and Training said that it will continue to urge, supervise and guide the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities to conduct a comprehensive review and rearrange the network of kindergartens and high schools in accordance with the population size and urban and rural planning in the overall review and adjustment of provincial planning when implementing local government at 2 levels; develop a plan to arrange educational institutions in a reasonable and effective manner, without wasting resources.
Along with that, priority is given to allocating budget to renovate and upgrade facilities and teaching equipment at key schools before organizing the reception of children, students, and trainees from small schools; at the same time, developing a clear implementation roadmap for each short-term, medium-term, and long-term period.
Taking advantage of the surplus housing and land fund after the arrangement of administrative units to serve education; focus on renovating, repairing, upgrading or constructing additional works, fully meeting regulations on scale, location, area and in line with the long-term development orientation of educational institutions.
The Ministry also requires appropriate support policies for children, students, and trainees in particularly disadvantaged areas, ethnic minority areas, mountainous areas, islands, and children, students, and trainees with disabilities to ensure access to education.
For mountainous, mountainous and ethnic minority provinces, the Ministry requires reviewing and arranging separate schools according to a suitable roadmap, focusing on forming, maintaining and developing ethnic boarding and semi-boarding school models for students in commune or inter-commune centers; prioritizing ensuring safe travel conditions, reasonable distances, not increasing costs and risks for students, especially in disadvantaged areas, border areas, and islands.
