HCM City will speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number of students (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - The HCM City People’s Council’s Cultural and SocialAffairs Board has instructed the municipal Department of Education andTraining to speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number ofstudents.
As many as 1,497 new classrooms will be put into use in the 2017-2018 academicyear, according to the department.
The number of students is expected to increase by 59,000.
For a number of years, an average of 25,000 students whose families do not havepermanent residency status newly enroll in school. Most of them live indistricts 12, Go Vap, Binh Tan, Binh Chanh and Cu Chi.
At a meeting between the board and the department held earlier this month, LeHoai Nam, the department’s deputy head, said the annual increase of studentsposed serious difficulties for HCM City.
The city’s policy is to ensure that all children attend school, Nam said.
The department has made a detailed construction plan for each district, and alldistricts should draw up detailed land plans, he added.
According to Do Dinh Thien, deputy head of the People’s Committee of Binh Tan district,that the district has 100,151 students this year, an increase of 6,928 comparedto last year.
The district has allocated 12.43 billion VND (545,175 USD) to upgrade and buyteaching aids. One new kindergarten and one new primary school are underconstruction.
“The district is also following the city’s policy to ensure that all children,including those whose family does not have permanent residency status, attendschool, which has led to a high number of students in each classroom,” Thiensaid.
At primary schools in the district, for instance, each classroom has 38students on average.
To reduce the number of students in every classroom, the district must build100 more new schools by 2020.
“That number is a dream number,” he said, adding that it would be difficult toreach.
The district does not have enough public land to build schools, he said.
It also needs 500 billion VND to 1,000 billion VND each year from the city’s budgetfor school construction, but the city’s budget is too limited.
The entire city needs more than 50,000 billion VND for 722 school projects witha total of 12,000 classrooms by 2020.-VNA
VNA
