Education together to build new countryside

In the National Criteria for New Rural Development, education is specified in two criteria, including: Criterion No. 5 on schools requires communes to have solid schools, gradually meeting national standards on facilities, staff, and educational activities. School facilities must ensure safety, have enough classrooms, functional rooms, and have a green - clean - beautiful campus. Criterion No. 14 on education and training emphasizes the quality of universalization and illiteracy eradication.

To implement these two criteria, in the period of 2020-2025, the education sector has advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue a plan to build schools that meet national standards, associated with annual quality assessment. At the same time, it has guided educational institutions, coordinated with local authorities and community learning centers to maintain and improve the quality of universal literacy and illiteracy eradication.

Specifically, implementing criterion No. 5, the Department of Education and Training has coordinated to review, plan the network, prioritize investment in "near-standard" schools, and at the same time link the construction of standard schools with the work of assessing the quality of education. Thanks to that, the number of standard schools has increased steadily over the years. If in 2020, the rate of schools meeting national standards was only 34.8%, by the end of 2024 it had increased to 48.9%, equivalent to 315 schools. The rate of solid classrooms reached 92.8%, an increase of more than 15% compared to 2020. Of the 538 schools in the communes alone, 354 schools met the standards of facilities and 302 schools met the national standards, contributing to helping over 95% of the communes meet criterion No. 5.

For example, Thuong Cuong Primary and Secondary School (Bang Mac Commune) was merged in 2021 on the basis of Thuong Cuong Primary School and Thuong Cuong Secondary School. After the merger, thanks to the investment attention of the State and the joint efforts of parents, the facilities were gradually completed. On May 23, 2025, the school was honored to receive a certificate of recognition of meeting national standards at level 1. Teacher Lai Van Huan, Principal of the school, said: "To meet national standards, the school's staff and teachers have made many consecutive years of efforts to improve the quality of teaching and learning, preserve the pedagogical landscape, and at the same time, take advantage of the investment attention of the Party Committee, the government and the support of parents and the people."

Along with criterion number 5, criterion number 14 on education and training is also implemented with many synchronous and specific solutions. The education sector regularly directs the review and consolidation of the results of universal preschool education for 5-year-old children, universal primary and secondary education at the right age; annually organizes assessment, recognition and improvement of the universalization level. Especially, attention is paid to the work of eliminating illiteracy in communes. Ms. Hoang Thi Len, a student of the illiteracy eradication class in phase 2 at the community learning center of De Tham commune (now Trang Dinh commune) shared: “Before, I did not know how to read or write. When I was informed, I registered to study. Now I know how to read and write, calculate and use the internet to serve production and raise children. My life has changed a lot.”

According to research, if in 2020, the province only achieved universal primary education level 2 and secondary education level 1, by 2024 it had increased to universal primary education level 3 and secondary education level 2. In particular, the work of eliminating illiteracy from level 1 (in 2020) was raised to level 2 in 2024. By the end of 2024, the whole province had over 95% of communes meeting education and training standards.

To achieve the above two criteria, in the 2020-2025 period, the education sector has invested a huge amount of resources. By the end of 2024, the whole province had 353 schools repaired and newly built with a total cost of more than 1,453 billion VND. In addition to the state budget, the whole sector also mobilized over 500 billion VND from socialized sources.

It can be affirmed that the completion of the two educational criteria has contributed significantly to the overall results of the new rural development program. When schools are spacious, students have a full education, people continue to study for life, the commune has more strength to develop.