Proposal to ensure policies and regimes for teachers and workers when merging
The whole country is in the peak period of arranging and merging high schools, colleges, and universities.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) requests localities to complete the arrangement of preschool, general education and continuing education institutions before December 31, 2025 according to the direction of the Central Government.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training announced and solicited opinions on the project to reorganize public service units in the Ho Chi Minh City education - training sector for the period 2025-2030. Currently, the entire Ho Chi Minh City education sector has 279 units under the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Department of Education and Training. It is expected that after the arrangement, there will be 256 public service units in the education sector.
According to the proposed plan of the department, the city will keep 3 universities; reorganize Saigon University on the basis of merging Ba Ria - Vung Tau Pedagogical College. For colleges and secondary schools, keep 6 schools; arrange 13 colleges and 17 secondary schools. After the arrangement, there are 3 universities, 17 colleges and 1 secondary school under the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City.
For preschool and general education, the draft basically keeps existing schools; only merge within the scope of a commune-level administrative unit, prioritize the retention of convenient schools, dissolve subsidized schools that do not meet standards. The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training proposed to convert and reorganize 41 continuing education and vocational education - vocational education centers into 37 vocational high schools.
Commenting on the draft, the District 1 Vocational Education and Training Center said that the merger of universities, colleges and secondary schools should be carried out on the basis of promoting the strengths of the host unit, enhancing the training reputation of the merged unit, thereby attracting learners and meeting local human resource needs.
According to the District 1 Vocational Education and Training Center, in case a facility is merged into another unit and has two units that are eligible to receive it, priority should be given to a unit with higher training reputation; if the conditions are equivalent, it is necessary to choose a unit with a closer geographical distance to facilitate learners.
This center also recommended that the project should develop general principles on personnel arrangement, especially the selection of leaders after the merger, ensuring based on professional qualifications, social prestige, training scale and management experience, to ensure fairness and transparency.
For the vocational education and training system, this center proposes to merge in clusters, especially in the inner city area, instead of merging alone, to increase scale, diversify occupations and suit long-term orientation.
Regarding the regime and policies for employees, Nhan Dao Vocational College recommends continuing to maintain the policy of supporting early retirement according to current decrees, and at the same time requesting the board of directors before and after the merger to pay full attention to the regime and income of employees, especially contract workers, to avoid the situation of decline affecting their lives.
Similarly, Binh Thanh Vocational College believes that the merger can cause anxiety in the team, thereby affecting the quality of training, so there needs to be specific instructions on personnel arrangement, regimes and support policies.
Proposal to allocate enough staff to schools
Mr. Ngo Van Hien - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tri Le commune (Lang Son province) - said that the commune has completed the review and arrangement of the network of educational institutions in the area.
During the implementation process, Tri Le commune encountered difficulties and problems related to the geographical distance between schools, which could cause difficulties for some parents in picking up and dropping off when there was a change in school locations; Inter-level schools with primary and secondary school locations are not close to each other, making it difficult to organize general activities and management work; Lacking facilities, equipment, classrooms, etc.
From the above reality, Mr. Hien said that the People's Committee of Tri Le commune has proposed that the Department of Education and Training create consultations with competent authorities, have specific instructions on the merger process, implementation procedures; ensure funding to repair and upgrade facilities, improve the quality of teaching and learning of the unit. At the same time, consider assigning enough staff to schools to implement teaching and learning at the unit.
