Urgently implement the plan to arrange schools
Mr. Nguyen Van Hien, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training (GDĐT), said that the city has issued Plan No. 272 to implement the policy of arranging educational institutions according to the direction of the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training. Hanoi sets a goal to complete the arrangement of general education institutions before August 10, 2026, reducing about 50% of administrative management focal points in schools.
Mr. Hien assessed that the documents of the Government and the Ministry of Education and Training have clearly oriented the organizational model, implementation methods and job positions at the branches. This is an important legal basis for the city to carry out synchronous and convenient arrangement.
We are summarizing and evaluating the projects of communes and wards so that localities can continue to improve and ensure the set progress" - Mr. Hien informed.
In Ninh Binh, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Director of the Provincial Department of Education and Training said that the locality is actively implementing a project to rearrange and merge schools. Previously, the province did it for the first time, reducing 152 focal points, and in the future, it will continue to reduce by about 50% more.
Mr. Ta Viet Hung - Director of Bac Ninh Department of Education and Training also said that the school arrangement plan has been developed by the locality and is being reviewed with communes and wards, with the goal of reducing about 50% of focal points.
Localities encounter problems with organizational structure and personnel
Localities all agreed to arrange the school network, aiming to streamline management focal points and improve operational efficiency. However, the actual implementation process faces many difficulties and obstacles, the immediate issue is the organization of the apparatus and personnel after arrangement.
Director of Bac Ninh Department of Education and Training Ta Viet Hung stated the reality that there are currently no specific regulations on the number of deputy heads after arrangement; how to determine school sites, satellite school sites and branches when many educational institutions are merged.
What is called a branch school, what is called a branch? There needs to be a clearer definition" - Mr. Hung proposed.
In addition, according to Mr. Hung, arranging the redundant staff after the merger is also a problem. For management officials, localities need to be guided on preserving positions, allowances and job transfer plans. Vice principals can return to work as teachers, but administrative staff are more difficult to arrange because they do not have teaching expertise, while many people are young and have not reached retirement age, and if they are laid off without specific instructions, it will be very difficult to handle.
In addition, the locality is also facing obstacles in arranging vocational education institutions.Some vocational colleges are expected to be merged or converted into vocational secondary schools to meet the requirement that each locality does not have more than three vocational education institutions.However, regulations on the model of vocational secondary schools are not yet complete, causing the locality to lack a legal basis to develop and implement plans.
The locality proposed that the Ministry maintain the norms for teachers.Because if the norms are maintained, provinces will be allocated budgets to hire.If the norms are lowered, it will affect the quality and it will be very difficult for students and teachers in class to be universalized.
Also encountering obstacles in arranging the management staff, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung - Director of Ninh Binh Department of Education and Training said that according to recent directives on school merger, redundant vice principals are arranged in other positions such as professional team leaders, professional deputy team leaders, teachers...
However, there is currently no legal document strong enough for provinces to rely on to bring down thousands of vice principals, so we are very confused" - Mr. Dung raised the difficulty.
Along with that, arranging job positions for school staff such as accountants, cashiers, clerks... is also a problem. According to calculations, after arrangement, Ninh Binh will reduce about 900 focal points, about 2,700 positions, how will we arrange them later when this team is in the payroll.
We hope the Ministry of Education and Training will coordinate with departments and branches to have specific instructions" - Mr. Dung said.
