Improving the quality of education: View from national standard schools (Final part)

07:08, November 8, 2023

Final episode: Towards the goal of raising standards

The construction of national standard schools has achieved remarkable results, but in the general development process, the criteria for standard schools continue to change, and the requirements and needs for learning are also higher than before.

Identify barriers

A school that meets national standards is a school that meets 5 standards (school organization and management; management staff, teachers, staff and students; facilities and teaching equipment; relationships between school, family and society; educational activities and educational results). These standards are gradually raised in each period and level to stratify goals and ensure the organization of comprehensive quality educational activities; creating a premise to approach the level of education and training development in countries around the world...

Students of Phan Chu Trinh Secondary School (Buon Ma Thuot City) practice chemistry experiments in the school's practice room.

Schools that meet national standards have a 5-year inspection and recognition cycle. After 5 years, they will be inspected for re-recognition (maintaining standards, raising standards) or not re-recognized. Through the review of the education sector, the construction of national standard schools is facing many difficulties and challenges from reality: degraded facilities; some criteria need to be changed and improved according to new regulations; the number of students is increasing, making it difficult to ensure the minimum ratio of school area and number of students per class; the quality of education in some schools is not maintained, improved and developed...

Through the development process, it is shown that the construction of national standard schools requires a continuous and in-depth investment from both the education sector and local authorities at all levels; especially in facilities and infrastructure. In Lak district, the budget for investment in education has certain limitations, forcing the district to adjust it every year. There are schools that have planned to meet standards early but have not yet met the standards because they need a large investment, while the limited annual budget forces the district to adjust to schools that are not in the plan but need less investment. Therefore, in recent years, although Lak district has ensured the plan to build standard schools, the shift of capital flow to schools outside the plan has directly affected the organization of teaching and learning in the locality, especially schools that have been "eliminated" from the plan to build standard schools passively.

In the coming time, the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Party Standing Committee will continue to direct Party committees and authorities at all levels to pay attention to building facilities and schools to ensure the standard school criteria; increase the number of teachers according to regulations; ensure 20% of the total state budget expenditure for education to contribute to improving the quality of education and training, implementing the targets of the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025".

Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Pham Minh Tan

In Buon Ma Thuot City, although it is about to "cover" national standard schools, the assessment of standard schools in the early stages has not been implemented in accordance with regulations. These schools are currently still "weak in standards" and are at risk of "falling standards" due to degraded facilities and an increase in the number of students, while the criteria for standard schools have changed in a direction with higher requirements than the old criteria; not to mention the number of schools that have not met the standards are stuck with difficult criteria. Mr. Nguyen Huu Tho, Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Buon Ma Thuot City, analyzed that the schools that have not met the standards have basically ensured the criteria on human resources, organization, education quality... but are "stuck" with criteria on facilities and school area, so it is very difficult to meet the standards according to the roadmap without appropriate investment.

Long-term solutions are needed

Plan No. 741/KH-UBND dated January 22, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee on Education Quality Assessment and National Standard School Construction in Dak Lak Province for the period 2021 - 2025 identifies the goal for the coming time as continuing to build national standard schools and re-accrediting schools to encourage investment in education, creating conditions for schools to continue improving the quality of education, contributing to the successful implementation of educational innovation in the province. Schools self-assess and rely on external assessment results to determine the level of meeting educational goals, plan quality improvement, maintain and improve the quality of school educational activities.

Specifically, the whole province strives to have 60% of schools meeting national standards by 2025; 100% of schools meeting standards according to the 5-year cycle will be considered for re-recognition; 3-5% of schools meeting standards will be upgraded. To achieve the above goals, the province continues to strengthen communication work on educational quality assessment and building schools meeting national standards; prioritize allocating enough area to build new schools, supplementing the planning and land use plan to ensure enough land area according to national standards for schools that do not have enough area; review and grant land use right certificates to 100% of schools...

Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Pham Minh Tan awarded Certificates of Merit to teachers with outstanding achievements in the National High School Student Selection Exam for the 2022-2023 school year.

On the education side, Dr. Do Tuong Hiep, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training, said that in the coming time, the Department will continue to strengthen supervision, inspection, and urge schools to implement the work of building standard schools; requiring schools that have met the standards to continue to promote and maintain quality. At the same time, spreading the movement of building happy schools on the basis of national standard schools to maintain and improve standards; piloting the construction of smart lessons, smart classrooms, smart schools, etc.

Thanh Huong

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