On the morning of September 4th, at Le Thi Rieng Primary, Secondary and High School (Thoi An ward, Ho Chi Minh City), the atmosphere of preparation for the opening ceremony took place urgently. The schoolyard has been arranged with a stage, LED screen, sound system and seats. Students of the blocks practiced flag salute rituals, national anthem singing and cultural performances.
From the facility that used to be the old District 12 People's Committee headquarters, the offices have been renovated into classrooms. Classrooms for grades 1 and 6 are basically completed; rooms for grade 10 are also being completed for use.
Principal Luong Van Minh said that in the immediate future, the school will focus on ensuring 18 classrooms to serve teaching and learning. After that, the school will continue to complete functional rooms such as Physics - Chemistry - Biology experiments, Informatics, Foreign Languages and STEM, expected to be put into synchronous use in mid-September.
This is the first school year that Le Thi Rieng Primary, Secondary and High School operates with a multi-level model. According to Mr. Minh, managing three levels of education at the same time is a new challenge, especially when he used to mainly do management work at the secondary and high school levels.
Primary school is a completely new area, so we have to study many regulations to organize enrollment, arrange classes, care for and organize semi-boarding for students," Mr. Minh said.
This school year, the school has 140 first-grade students, divided into 4 classes. To help students get acquainted with the new environment, in the early days, parents will pick up and drop off their children in the classroom. When students become disciplined, the school will switch to the plan of picking up students in the hall, guiding them to move into the classroom and return to the hall after school.
The school currently has 43 officials, teachers, and staff, including 31 full-time and 12 contract teachers. Some subjects such as Natural Sciences, Music, Fine Arts and English are still lacking teachers at some levels. The school is arranging visiting lecturers to ensure teaching.
For 10th grade students, the early days at Le Thi Rieng also brought many emotions. Nguyen Ngoc Thao Nguyen said that she was emotional when entering a completely new school and meeting new friends. Le Thi Rieng School was not Nguyen's first choice, but according to her mother's advice, she decided to experience a new environment.
In the early days of getting acquainted, I saw that the homeroom teacher was very dedicated and approachable. This school year, I set a goal to achieve good academic results and hope to win the city-level excellent student award in Literature," Nguyen shared.
Meanwhile, Cao Thuan Phuc said that he had previously chosen Le Thi Rieng school as nguyện vọng 1 because his house is about 15 minutes away from the school.
I like the new, modern facilities. These days when I come to school to practice rituals, I see the atmosphere is very cheerful, friends are sociable and friendly," Phuc said.
The opening ceremony of the 2026-2027 school year in Ho Chi Minh City will be held on the morning of September 5 in a live and online format.
Preparing for the new school year, the city put into operation 1,027 new classrooms (exceeding 27 rooms compared to the plan).
At the same time, the arrangement of the public education network recorded a major shift when it decreased from 2,188 to 1,486 institutions (a decrease of 702 units, equivalent to 32.08%, exceeding the set target).
Specific reductions include: preschool reduced by 268 schools (38%), primary school reduced by 282 schools (36%), secondary school reduced by 137 schools (30%) and continuing education - vocational education reduced by 15 institutions (37%); especially the model of inter-level primary school - secondary school increased from 14 to 44 schools to share facilities and improve management efficiency.
