Delegates Le Xuan Khuong and Phuc Hung focused on questioning solutions for the more than 5,300 classrooms that are in shortage.
Answering before the Provincial People's Council, Mr. Do Duc Que - Director of the Department of Education and Training admitted that this is one of the lowest targets in the country. From 2020 to now, the need to generate about 3,000 additional rooms, combined with the shortage from the previous period, has led to the figure of more than 5,300 rooms.
To solve this situation, Mr. Do Duc Que reported on the implementation roadmap through major investment programs of the province, including an investment program of nearly 3,000 billion VND to build 16 inter-level schools in 16 border communes to completely eliminate the shortage of classrooms here. In addition, the province implemented Decision No. 1380 with a budget of about 423 billion VND for 41 kindergartens and general schools from now until 2027; allocated 1,100 billion VND for 33 mountainous educational institutions and proposed to build and upgrade 514 national standard schools with a budget of about 1,871 billion VND in the period 2026 - 2030.
In 2026 alone, the sector proposed to overcome 74 education and training institutions, in which the number one and most urgent priority is to repair places that are unsafe for students, then come degraded classrooms that need to be re-recognized as national standards and finally build new ones.
The question-and-answer session continued to heat up as delegates delved into direct question-and-answer questions. Delegate Cam Ba Chai questioned about the fact that there are regulations on payroll, but the teacher shortage situation still persists for many years, and at the same time requested the Director of the Department of Education and Training to make a specific time commitment to recruit and rectify.
Answering this content, Mr. Do Duc Que made specific commitments on the recruitment milestone of more than 2,020 teacher and staff quotas. Accordingly, the sector has issued a plan and announced recruitment, the roadmap is to conduct recruitment by mid-August 2026 and before September 5, 2026, the results of the first phase will be announced so that teachers can receive classes before the new school year. Cases of considering first and second wishes will be resolved definitively within one month afterwards.
Regarding the question of delegate Le Thi Phuong about synchronous solutions between planning and investment, avoiding the situation where there is equipment but there is a shortage of classrooms or vice versa, the Director of the Department of Education and Training committed that the sector will advise the Provincial People's Committee to coordinate with departments and branches to completely eliminate temporary classrooms from now until 2030, and at the same time complete the purchase of minimum teaching equipment for the remaining grades according to the 2018 General Education Program in the two school years 2026 - 2027 and 2027 - 2028.
Speaking at the conclusion of the question-and-answer session, Mr. Nguyen Hong Phong - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Council highly appreciated the question-and-answer session of the Director of the Department of Education and Training and acknowledged the efforts of the education sector, and pointed out voters' concerns about degraded facilities, exam pressure, achievement disease and teacher shortage.
To thoroughly overcome the existing problems, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council requested the Department of Education and Training and relevant units and localities to urgently review and adjust the school network planning for the period 2026 - 2030, orientation to 2035 and submit it for approval immediately in the third quarter of 2026. The process of arranging educational institutions must shift from the goal of simply reducing focal points to restructuring the network according to population size and development space, absolutely not to implement mechanical arrangement and must be basically completed before the 2026 - 2027 school year.
In addition, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Council requested localities to allocate sufficient standard land funds for schools and attract socialization; complete the purchase of additional minimum teaching equipment in the 2026 - 2027 school year as committed.
At the same time, the Department of Education and Training must coordinate with the Department of Home Affairs to recruit sufficient staff quotas, arrange reasonable assignments and advise on mechanisms for teaching overtime or short-term contracts, ensuring that in the 2026 - 2027 school year there are no more subjects without teachers teaching.
Mr. Phong emphasized that all the committed and directed contents at the meeting will be concretized into the Resolution on questioning activities of the session for the Provincial People's Council to supervise implementation.
