The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training (GDĐT) has just sent a report to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee requesting opinions on policies on plans to arrange the network of public preschool, general and continuing education institutions in the area.
Accordingly, Ho Chi Minh City sets a target to reduce at least 30% of the number of public educational institutions compared to July 1, 2025.
As of July 1, 2025, Ho Chi Minh City has 2,188 public educational institutions. With this scale, the 10% reduction plan corresponds to reducing at least 219 focal points; the target is to reduce by at least 30% corresponding to reducing at least 657 focal points, and no more than 1,531 focal points.
Based on the city's educational practice, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training proposes to arrange the network of schools and classes in a cautious direction, with a roadmap, piloting first, replicating later and having time to assess the impact.
No merging kindergartens with general schools
According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, the pilot plan must ensure consensus from the locality.
Educational institutions implementing high-quality, advanced, regional and internationally integrated education content; kindergartens participating in the pilot program of the new preschool education program for the 2026-2027 school year are not subject to merger.
Ho Chi Minh City also does not merge kindergartens with general schools; does not merge general schools with continuing education centers, vocational education - continuing education; does not arrange specialized educational institutions with mass general schools.
The city prioritizes reorganizing educational institutions of the same level of education or with close geographical locations.
The arrangement needs to be linked to the plan to invest in building new schools, arranging redundant headquarters as schools. Schools located in the border areas between wards and communes must consult the Department of Education and Training on the merger plan.
The process of reorganizing educational institutions must also be linked to overall planning, population density, geographical conditions and traffic convenience and safety. Ho Chi Minh City minimizes changes in school locations, ensuring normal learning and teaching activities.
After arrangement, each commune-level administrative unit must ensure that there is at least one kindergarten, one primary school and one secondary school.
The multi-level general education school model is prioritized in sparsely populated areas or places with difficult travel conditions. The city prioritizes merging schools of the same level, limiting the formation of inter-level schools; only organize inter-level schools when conditions are really favorable and suitable for local characteristics.
Ho Chi Minh City proposes 3 arrangement options
Based on the above principles, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training proposed 3 options.
Option 1 is to pilot in some areas and some types of educational institutions, towards the goal of reducing 30% of public educational institutions.
At the preschool level, the pilot program is proposed in 4 wards and communes including Dong Hung Thuan, Tang Nhon Phu, Vung Tau and Dau Tieng.
At the general education level, piloting in 2 wards with small-scale schools is Binh Thoi, Cau Kieu and 2 high schools directly under the Department of Education and Training.
For the continuing education system, 6 vocational education - continuing education centers are selected to be rearranged into 2 centers.
Option 2 sets a target of reducing 10% of the number of public educational institutions, towards the goal of reducing 30%.
According to this plan, at the preschool level, schools with a scale of 9 groups and classes or less will be merged; at the general education level, schools with a scale of less than 24 classes will be merged.
For the continuing education system, merge 37 continuing education - vocational education units into 29 vocational education - continuing education centers. At the same time, establish 4 vocational secondary schools based on centers in Cu Chi, Can Gio, Phu Giao and Phu My.
Option 3 sets a target of reducing 30% of public educational institutions.
At the preschool level, rearrange educational institutions to ensure a maximum scale of 30 classes. At the general education level, rearrange schools with a scale of less than 40 classes.
The continuing education system merged 37 continuing education - vocational education units into 19 vocational education - continuing education centers. At the same time, 4 vocational secondary schools were established in Cu Chi, Can Gio, Phu Giao and Phu My.
The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training believes that the arrangement of the network of educational institutions directly affects social security, the learning rights of millions of students and the job positions of educational personnel.
Therefore, the selection of the option needs to be comprehensively assessed, not mechanically merged, ensuring stability, inheritance and absolutely not letting students drop out of school due to geographical barriers.
Ho Chi Minh City currently has a large network of public educational institutions, including 2,188 institutions, covering many levels of education and types of education.
Including 694 kindergartens, 778 primary schools, 449 secondary schools, 159 high schools; 14 primary - secondary schools, 14 secondary - high schools and 2 primary - secondary - high schools.
In addition, the city has 41 continuing education centers, vocational education - continuing education and 37 specialized schools.
