Overcoming difficulties to implement 2-session teaching/day in Dat Mui

GD&TĐ - In the 2025-2026 school year, the Ca Mau Education sector will implement 2-session/day teaching and boarding to improve the quality of comprehensive education.

However, many schools in the province encounter many difficulties in implementing this policy.

Lack of human and material resources

Located in the farthest area of ​​Ca Mau province, Dat Mui Primary School 1 (Dat Mui commune) currently has 870 students and 40 staff, teachers and employees. Principal Doan Van Tiep said that the school's facilities basically meet the requirements of teaching 2 sessions/day, but are not yet qualified to organize boarding for students. Notably, the school still lacks many teachers and service staff.

“Currently, the school is short of about 9 teachers in IT, English, Physical Education, etc. The problem that worries the school the most when organizing boarding is not having enough catering and service staff. Ensuring that cooking meets standards, food safety and hygiene for students, arranging clean eating and resting places, etc. all need to be carefully calculated before implementation. In difficult conditions, the school plans to initially only organize boarding for students from far away by grouping classes, and will learn from experience as the implementation progresses,” Principal Doan Van Tiep shared.

Vien An Commune Primary School 2 (Dat Mui, Ca Mau) has one main campus and two satellite campuses, with more than 500 students and 30 staff and teachers. Principal Pham Thi Quyen said that the school's facilities have deteriorated and need to be repaired soon to ensure the safety of teachers and students. Currently, the school only teaches 2 sessions/day for grades 3, 4, and 5, but the number of classes is limited due to a lack of teachers. Regarding boarding, the school does not meet the requirements.

“Not only is the school facing difficulties in facilities, it is also short of about 5 teachers. The whole school only has one English teacher, but she is about to go on maternity leave. Although the school has contacted some neighboring schools for support in inter-school teaching, it has not been approved yet. In the coming time, we hope to receive attention and support from the relevant authorities and local authorities in investing in facilities, recruiting teachers to ensure conditions for teaching 2 sessions/day and organizing boarding, thereby improving the quality of education .

Because nearly 50% of the school’s students have to go to school by boat, if they study 2 sessions a day without boarding, parents will have many difficulties in picking up and dropping off their children and incur expenses. The school cannot arrange enough staff and teachers to manage students while waiting for afternoon classes,” Ms. Quyen shared.

Similarly, Vien An Dong Primary School 1 (Phan Ngoc Hien, Ca Mau) is short of 9 teachers, of which the English subject is the most lacking. Mr. Pham Viet Quan - Principal said, implementing the 2018 General Education Program, the school organizes English teaching from grade 3 to grade 5 (equivalent to 9 classes). According to regulations, each class teaches 4 periods/week, the total number of English periods of the school is 36 periods/week. Meanwhile, the school only has 1 English teacher, this teacher has a child under 12 months old so she cannot increase the number of periods.

For higher education levels, implementing 2-session teaching/day in many schools also faces difficulties in terms of human resources and material resources. Mr. Nguyen Thanh Binh - Principal of Thanh Binh Secondary School (Phong Thanh, Ca Mau) informed that the school is lacking about 4 classrooms to serve 2-session teaching/day. The immediate solution is to arrange, utilize, and arrange functional rooms as classrooms, and select a number of classes to implement. When the facilities are fully invested, the school will organize 2-session teaching/day in all grades, associated with boarding organization.

Ca Mau has 88/226 public secondary and high schools qualified to organize 2 sessions/day. Photo: QM

Make the most of resources

According to the review and statistics, to ensure the basic organization of teaching 2 sessions/day, Ca Mau province needs to build 126 additional classrooms at preschool and primary levels (55 classrooms for preschool, 71 classrooms for primary). Secondary schools need to add 519 classrooms (not including 74 semi-permanent classrooms, 23 temporary classrooms). High schools need to add 462 classrooms (not including 42 semi-permanent classrooms, 3 temporary classrooms).

For the implementation of boarding at the preschool level, it is necessary to invest in 127 more bedrooms, 5 kitchens, 31 kitchen storages; for the primary level, it is necessary to build 237 bedrooms, 88 kitchens and 88 kitchen storages. Regarding the teaching staff, to implement teaching 2 sessions/day, the whole sector needs 685 more preschool teachers, 368 primary school teachers, 298 secondary school teachers and 626 high school teachers.

According to the leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Ca Mau, the locality has been reviewing, updating, and adjusting the school network planning to suit the needs of organizing 2 sessions/day and boarding. Schools with excess classrooms will be converted into bedrooms, kitchens, physical education classrooms, art classrooms, libraries, etc.

“The sector will coordinate with relevant units, advise the Provincial People's Committee to propose capital allocation from the provincial budget and other legal sources to effectively implement 2-shift teaching/day and semi-boarding for students. Make the most of resources from national target programs, education support projects, prioritize capital allocation to renovate and expand facilities at schools in disadvantaged areas, which do not have the conditions to teach 2-shift teaching/day and semi-boarding.

At the same time, the goals and scale of teaching 2 sessions/day and boarding schools will be integrated into the medium-term and long-term public investment plans of the education and training sector and the locality," informed Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen - Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ca Mau.

Regarding the human resource problem, Ca Mau province will continue to review the need for teachers, issue recruitment plans and organize the recruitment of the number of teachers lacking compared to the assigned staff in 2025. Implement the arrangement of inter-school teachers according to the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training in the 2025-2026 school year. Implement the transfer and secondment of teachers and staff from schools with surplus to schools with shortage...

“The industry also coordinates with a number of universities in the region to review and synthesize the number of university students from Ca Mau province who are studying at universities and are close to graduating (priority given to 4th year students), especially those majoring in English Language, Information Technology... who wish to become teachers to participate in pedagogical training classes.

Advise the Provincial People's Committee to assign the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with schools responsible for recruiting students for training classes and university training with 160 targets to provide a source of teachers for recruitment in the coming time. At the same time, advise the competent authority to issue appropriate support policies for teachers who teach 2 sessions/day, boarding students and teachers who are also responsible for caring for and managing boarding students," Mr. Nguyen Van Nguyen proposed a solution.

Ca Mau currently has 512/520 public kindergartens and primary schools teaching 2 sessions/day, a rate of nearly 98.5%. The total number of public kindergartens and primary schools organizing boarding is 232/520, a rate of over 44.6% (189/196 kindergartens; 43/324 primary schools). The total number of public secondary and high schools organizing 2 sessions/day is 88/226 schools, a rate of nearly 39% (56/174 secondary schools; 32/52 high schools).

Source: https://giaoducthoidai.vn/vuot-kho-trien-khai-day-2-buoingay-noi-dat-mui-post749792.html