On April 10, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Cultural Board had a meeting and supervision with departments and agencies and representatives of the People's Committee of the districts and Thu Duc City on the implementation of the project to build 4,500 classrooms to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and the reunification of the country.
Mr. Cao Thanh Binh - Head of the Department of Culture and Social Affairs - Ho Chi Minh City People's Council said that before April 30, the city will have 900 classrooms put into use, and by the end of 2025, the whole city will have 2,000 new classrooms put into use, including 800 classrooms from socialized sources and 1,200 classrooms from public investment capital.
However, according to Mr. Binh, these are mainly for repair and renovation, with few new classrooms built.
Mr. Binh added that out of a total of 276 projects, there are currently many projects that are slow to be implemented, including both subjective and objective reasons, leading to the failure to achieve the goal of building 4,500 classrooms.
To speed up progress and remove obstacles, at the meeting, the Department of Culture and Social Affairs directly supervised 10 typical projects under the 4,500 classroom project that are facing difficulties. These 10 projects are concentrated in many localities such as: Thu Duc City, Binh Chanh District and Districts 6, 7, 10, 12...
According to representatives of districts and towns, many projects are facing difficulties in site clearance, or cannot be implemented due to regulations, and there are also projects proposed to be moved from the medium-term period (2021-2025) to the long-term period (2026-2030) because they cannot be implemented.
For example, Tan Kien Kindergarten (Binh Chanh district) was planned with a construction investment capital of 120 billion VND, but to date, the residential area has not yet handed over the land, and the project's legal status has not been approved.
The Thoi An Primary School project (District 12) has been under construction since 2022, and the project has been basically completed with 20 classrooms and has been put into use. However, part of the project's land (the multi-purpose gymnasium area) of the school has not been cleared due to a household living there.
From the actual reports of districts, Mr. Cao Thanh Binh directly criticized many localities for including projects that do not have clear legality, are not planned in detail and do not have a positive impact in the 4,500 classroom project.
Mr. Binh suggested that Thu Duc City and districts need to strengthen reviewing and timely coordination with departments and branches to promptly remove difficulties in project implementation.
"We need to determine which projects are feasible and implement them immediately. If the project is not feasible, then boldly remove it from the project, re-determin it, and put it in the long-term phase," said Mr. Binh.
