Arranging schools, reducing focal points, streamlining the apparatus... are policies that are receiving the attention of the people.
To implement this policy, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has issued guidelines in Official Letter 6165/BGDDT GDPT in 2025 to rearrange and reorganize preschool, general education, and continuing education institutions in accordance with the two-level local government model.
In recent days, in meetings with localities, leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training have also repeatedly emphasized the implementation of school arrangement and merger.
At a recent meeting with Lai Chau province, Minister Nguyen Kim Son suggested that Lai Chau province focus on implementing the construction of inter-level ethnic boarding schools in border communes while calculating the rearrangement of the school network in accordance with reality.
The arrangement principle is that primary school students (class 13) study near home, students of class 45 and junior high school students study at boarding and daycare schools; at the same time, a plan is being developed for teacher transfer, ensuring stable staff.
At the conference to study and implement Resolution 71-NQ/TW, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong said that there were phenomena of blatant violations of state management of education and training. He requested that we should avoid extreme trends in the task of arranging, merging, and streamlining focal points in the education sector.
According to Mr. Thuong, kindergartens and general schools also need to avoid extreme and mechanical trends. Some provinces have arranged to reduce nearly 50% of high schools in the province. Regarding this, the Ministry of Education and Training has established an inspection team.
In Official Dispatch 6165/BGDDT GDPT in 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training clearly stated: Only merge schools/school locations within the commune level, prioritize keeping schools with good facilities and convenient transportation; do not merge kindergartens with general schools; each commune must have at least 1 kindergarten, primary school, and secondary school (except in special cases).
The Ministry of Education and Training also noted that localities should reasonably arrange the team of managers, teachers, and staff for educational institutions. The arrangement must be carried out according to the job position plan; ensuring balance between levels of education and types of educational institutions.
According to Lao Dong's update as of November 11, many localities across the country have completed the arrangement plan, or have proposed merging schools.
Quang Ninh has completed the merger of the network of commune-ward schools in the whole province nearly a month ago. However, the arrangement of reducing more than 50% of school focal points, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, is far exceeding professional recommendations, causing imbalance in scale, leading to overload of facilities and affecting teaching quality.
Meanwhile, the provinces and cities: Ho Chi Minh City, Thanh Hoa, Phu Tho, Ha Tinh, Ca Mau proposed to merge dozens of universities, colleges and many secondary schools, in order to streamline the network of educational institutions according to the Government's orientation.
