According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training of Son La province, during the floods in late July and early August, 58 schools in the province were affected in terms of facilities and teaching equipment, with a total damage of nearly 98 billion VND.
The People's Committee of Son La province has directed units to focus on overcoming the consequences and ensuring facilities for the new school year. Up to now, many facilities have been temporarily repaired to ensure the progress of the new school year.
However, there are still some facilities that have not been repaired, and students temporarily have to go to school at the commune People's Committee headquarters.
At Hoa Mai Kindergarten (Huoi Mot commune), after the flood, the school was severely affected and was at risk of further landslides. Currently, the commune has moved the school to the headquarters of the People's Committee of the old Nam Man commune to ensure learning.
In addition to difficulties in facilities, the shortage of teachers is also a difficult problem for the Son La education sector.
According to the report of the Department of Education and Training of Son La province, in the 2025 - 2026 school year, the whole province is short of 1,222 teachers compared to the staff assigned by the Provincial People's Committee.
Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Son La province said that in the 2025 - 2026 school year, Son La province has 609 kindergartens, general schools, and continuing education centers with 374,819 students. The ratio of new solid classrooms has only reached 73.3%, the rest are semi- old classrooms and temporary classrooms.
"The lack of facilities as well as the teaching staff has affected the organization of 2 sessions/day and boarding and daycare for students. Currently, the whole province only has 378/523 schools from primary to high school organizing 2 sessions/day" - Mr. Chien said.
To overcome the above situation, Son La province is investing in building 13 primary and secondary schools in border communes. Of which, 11 new schools were built and facilities were added, 2 schools were renovated and upgraded. After completion, each school can receive 800 - 1,000 students.
The People's Committee of Son La province is also assigning relevant units to implement the recruitment and use of teachers' staff assigned in Decision No. 72-QD/TW dated July 18, 2022 of the Politburo.
At the same time, review the number of existing teachers, propose to supplement the teacher payroll for the period 2026 - 2030 to overcome the shortage of teachers, especially implementing 2 sessions/day teaching for general education and implementing pho thonglization of kindergarten for children from 3 to 5 years old.
In the immediate future, it is necessary to strengthen the implementation of the plan to transfer and second teachers from places with surplus to places with shortage, and arrange teachers to teach inter-school teaching in localities.
Research and develop a mechanism for coordination, mobilization, and contracts for artisans, artists, professional athletes, and foreign volunteers to participate in organizing educational activities in schools.
