Parents scramble at Ta Quang Buu High School in Hanoi to submit applications for their children to enter the 10th grade. (Photo: thanhnien.vn)According to the director of the department, Tran The Cuong, itwas crucial to replace delayed and substandard projects with schools toaccommodate the increasing number of students.
Hanoi recently witnessed a highly stressful entrance exam forpublic high schools, with only half of the total number of secondary schoolgraduates being admitted to public high schools as expected. The proportion ofstudents securing a place in public high schools in the city has reached itslowest point in the past ten years.
About 33,000 students, accounting for 44.3% of the total, wereleft with no choice but to enrol in private high schools, continuation schoolsor vocational schools.
Hanoi had announced its plans to enrol 72,000 students for publicschools out of the total of 129,210 secondary school graduates in the 2022-2023academic year. This meant that one out of every two students would have toattend a non-public school.
Consequently, after Hanoi released the admission criteria forpublic high schools, many parents lined up overnight at private and autonomouspublic schools such as Phan Huy Chu High School, Hoang Cau High School, and TaQuang Buu High School to submit applications for their children to enter the10th grade.
There were cases where students met or exceeded the admissionscores but couldn’t secure a spot due to arriving late. Some parents evenexperienced a situation where the admission scores increased just one day afterthe initial announcement, creating concerns that their children would miss theopportunity to be admitted.
To address this situation, the city’s Department of Education and Traininghas issued a document requiring high schools to assign authorised admissionofficers and make their contact information, hotlines, and support servicespublicly available.
These measures were aimed at providing timely guidance andassistance to students and their parents and ensuring security and orderlinessduring the enrollment period.
It explicitly prohibited the gathering of students and parentsoutside the school gate, as it could lead to disorder and insecurity in thesurrounding area.
Furthermore, the Prime Minister has instructed the Ministry of theMinistry of Education and Training to promptly review and report on theadmission process for public high schools for timely solutions.
Enrollment crisis
Parents queuing overnight to enrol their children was a commonsight at most educational institutions in Hanoi. Last year, parents had to drawlots for a chance to enrol their children in Hoang Liet Preschool in Hoang Mai districtor line up overnight to purchase application forms for Grade 1 at Marie CuriePrimary School in Nam Tu Liem district.
This June, hundreds of parents competed for enrollment at Van BaoElementary School in Ha Dong district, leading to overcrowding and chaos.
During a recent Q&A session at the Hanoi City People's Councilmeeting, Cuong affirmed that Hanoi did not lack public schools.
Figures from the city’s department showed that there was a totalof 129,210 secondary school graduates in the city this year.
The department allocated 128 public and semi-public high schoolsto enrol 75,430 students and assigned 95 private high schools to enrol 26,829students as well as 29 vocational education centres to admit 10,305 students.
Therefore, the total number of available spots was 112,564.
Currently, Hanoi has four specialised high schools affiliated withuniversities, with a total of nearly 2,000 spots available for nationwideenrollment.
More than 14,000 students still had to switch to vocationaleducation. However, many parents had different opinions.
Nguyen Van Xuan in Tay Ho district told the online newspaper cafebiz.vn that the suburban districtsdid not lack public schools, and students who achieved a score of 4 in anysubject could secure admission to public high schools. But distance is a realchallenge.
On the other hand, the inner-city areas experienced a severeshortage of classrooms.
Xuan said his child achieved an average of 7.7 points per subjectbut still couldn't get into Tay Ho High School. The alternative choice was studyingat Dai Mo High School, 20km away from their home, if they insisted on attendinga public school.
"My child will have to leave for school at 5:30am. It will beextremely challenging for him for the whole three years. I really want my childto attend a public school because the tuition fees are affordable,” he said.
Considering all factors, Xuan accepted a private school despitethe financial burden. However, finding a quality private school with reasonabletuition fees was not an easy task.
“We are not being selective. We just have very few choices,"he said.
Xuan said the shortage of classrooms has created significantpressure in the inner city. The class sizes have increased significantly beyondthe actual capacity.
“My family lives in HDI Tay Ho apartment complex, which consistsof four buildings with 600 apartments, but there is only one private preschoolwith a monthly fee of 6 million VND. Apartment complexes in Hanoi aremushrooming, but the number of classrooms does not match the populationdensity,” he said.
Nguyen Thanh Mai in Thanh Xuan district said students from theinner city failed to scramble for seats at public schools would have to go tosuburban districts like Ba Vi, Son Tay, or Thach That as there were indeedschools available.
"Hanoi needs to reconsider how urban planning is conducted toensure that parents no longer have to queue overnight or draw lots for theirchildren's education," she said.
Untangling the knot
Professor Pham Tat Dong, former chairman of the Vietnam Associationfor Promoting Education, raised his concerns over Hanoi - the political,cultural, and educational centre of the country - was still struggling with asituation where parents had to scramble to secure a school spot for theirchildren.
"Frankly speaking, in Hanoi, many prime locations have beenused up for building high-rises, and there have been suspended projects thatwaste good land. Yet land for building schools is not available,” he said.
“The availability of schools doesn't simply mean having enoughseats for students. Schools need to meet all the requirements for standardssuch as minimum area per student, facilities, and the capability of theschool," he emphasised.
According to Dong, when planning new urban areas, the educationsector needed to advise local authorities on the number of additionalkindergartens and primary schools. Construction projects must meet all thestandards and requirements for social facilities before they were approved.
The education sector also needs to calculate the number ofadditional teachers, he added.
Dong noted that public schools must be included in urban planning.In reality, many urban areas have lots of private schools, but the fees areunaffordable for many people.
“Planning should meet the common needs of the community to ensureall students have access to education and adequate quality training,” he said.
The city’s Department of Education and Training has proposed therenovation and repair of 123 schools under its management by 2025.Additionally, the city plans to construct 16 new schools, including seveninter-level schools. The total investment for these projects amounted to 8.87trillion VND (375 million USD) from the city's budget.
The department has also proposed solutions for the upcomingacademic year, including expediting the construction and establishment of newschools, as well as the renovation of public high schools. It will review andreclaim delayed projects to build public schools and develop a school networkplan for the city by 2023, with a vision to 2050. Priority will be given toallocating land within key urban areas for the construction of public schools.
The department will provide recommendations to the city onenhancing financial resources and investing in constructing schools, as well asmobilising social resources for investment in non-public schools and schoolswith foreign involvement, it said./.
VNA
