This afternoon, August 14, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training held a conference to summarize the 2023-2024 school year and deploy tasks for the 2024-2025 school year. At the conference, Mr. Nguyen Minh Thien Hoang, Deputy Head of the Primary Education Department, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said that in the 2023-2024 school year, Ho Chi Minh City has 561 primary schools and multi-level general schools with primary level (including public and non-public), of which there are 522 public primary schools. The whole city has 17,382 classrooms, an increase of 130 classrooms compared to the previous school year.

In recent times, facilities and teaching equipment at primary schools in Ho Chi Minh City have been enhanced to meet the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program. Basically, schools have purchased enough minimum teaching equipment to ensure convenience for school educational activities.

The classroom/classroom ratio is 0.96. The whole city has 910 computer rooms for computer science with a total of 33,867 computers.

The number of computer rooms in the whole area basically meets the requirements for teaching computer science for grades 3 and 4. Some schools that lack computers have flexible solutions to ensure 100% of students in grades 3 and 4 and organize for other grades to learn computer science.

In the 2023-2024 school year, the city will have 637,008 primary school students (a decrease of 25,926 compared to the same period last year). Notably, 502,200 primary school students will study 2 sessions/day, accounting for 78.8% (an increase of 4% compared to the same period last year). The city will have 14,362 classes studying 2 sessions/day out of a total of 17,382 classes, accounting for 82.6% (an increase of 1.9% compared to the same period last year).

Districts 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, Phu Nhuan, Can Gio District, Nha Be District have a 100% rate of studying 2 sessions/day. Last school year, the average primary school class size was 36.6 students/class (a decrease of 1.8 students/class compared to the 2022-2023 school year).

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training recognizes that Ho Chi Minh City always prioritizes investment in education, completes the school network, enhances advanced and modern teaching and learning equipment; gradually reduces the number of students and increases the rate of students studying 2 sessions/day. However, in the 2023-2024 school year, there are still some difficulties in primary education such as the ratio of 1 classroom/class is not guaranteed; the city's ratio of 2 sessions/day has not reached 100%, some schools still lack functional rooms. Some schools still have too many students, affecting the quality of learning.

The causes of the above situation are the pressure of increasing population, high population density, and insufficient number of classrooms. Schools lack teachers due to the lack of candidates, especially subject teachers. Schools have to sign contracts and guest lecturers to ensure enough teachers to teach classes...

"Running Class", digital class in Ho Chi Minh City

What are the solutions to the above problems? The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that the results of implementing educational planning and building schools are being carried out well, ensuring progress in achieving the target by 2025, reaching 300 classrooms/10,000 people of school age (from 3 to 18 years old). Ho Chi Minh City is developing a project for 4,500 new classrooms with the goal of completion by 2025, celebrating the 50th anniversary of national reunification.

Some Departments of Education and Training have consulted with leaders at all levels to speed up the progress of site clearance and construction of primary schools (such as in Binh Chanh District). Some schools lack functional rooms, so they teach English, fine arts, and music in the classroom. Schools with auditoriums can use them as art rooms.

In the past, depending on actual conditions, schools arranged for students to study in the opposite session. At the same time, some Departments of Education and Training directed schools to implement the plan of organizing "running classes" to create opportunities for students to study 2 sessions/day like in Go Vap District... Ho Chi Minh City also implemented a combined class at Thieng Lieng facility, Thanh An Primary School (Thanh An island commune, Can Gio District) with 12 students, including 4 4th graders and 8 5th graders.

In addition, the Ho Chi Minh City Digital Transformation Support and Consulting Center in coordination with the Department of Education and Training has supported the construction of digital classroom models at Thanh An Primary School, Can Gio District; Trung Lap Thuong Primary School, Cu Chi District in the context of a shortage of teachers at the primary level...