Require the school to admit shortcomings and propose to learn from experience

On October 18, Mr. Nguyen Van Canh, Vice Chairman of Nghi Duc Commune People's Committee, Vinh City, Nghe An Province, said that the unit had sent a written report to Vinh City People's Committee and the Department of Education and Training regarding the issue of moving air conditioners from the old school building to the new school building.

Specifically, Nghi Duc Primary School has 53 air conditioners to serve 32 rooms, including: 25 classrooms, 2 principal's offices and 5 functional rooms.

For the 2024-2025 school year, the school has just completed a 3-story building. Therefore, the school has decided to move equipment, including 23 air conditioners, into this newly built building.

According to the economic contract between the school and the relocation unit, the total implementation cost is more than 53 million VND.

There are two contents, the first is to renew the 3-phase power line system supplying power to the air conditioning system. The second is the cost of disassembly, cleaning, maintenance, replacement of spare parts, etc. to complete and ensure the safety of putting 23 air conditioners into use.

Regarding the incident, the Vice Chairman of Nghi Duc Commune People's Committee said that the school had not followed the correct procedures. Specifically, it had not organized a meeting to collect parents' opinions, leading to many conflicting and inconsistent opinions.

However, due to the urgent situation when the old classroom building was degraded, during the summer vacation, the school board did not organize parent meetings for each class, only through the school's parent association representative board (3 members).

Regarding this, Nghi Duc commune requested the school to organize a meeting to seriously review the shortcomings of the board of directors in implementing the relocation of the air conditioning system.

At the same time, the school needs to organize a school-wide parent meeting or a parent-teacher association meeting for each class to publicly announce the specific and detailed contract costs for moving the air conditioner.

If parents cannot be mobilized, the school must arrange its own resources.

At Nghi Duc Primary School, the reporter noted that the 3-storey building was basically completed. It is worth mentioning that this project has not been accepted, but the school still allows students to study.

In addition, although the building is newly built, there has been a leak, with water flowing from the second floor to the first floor bathroom area.

It is known that this project was built with a total cost of more than 11 billion VND, with Nghi Duc Commune People's Committee as the investor. The construction unit of the school building is Quoc Anh Investment and Construction Joint Stock Company (located in Tan Lac town, Quy Chau district, Nghe An province) with Mr. Hoang Van Han as the legal representative.

Regarding this, the Vice Chairman of Nghi Duc Commune People's Committee admitted that the school had just been completed and had not yet been accepted but had already started accepting students. The reason was that the school also wanted to put into use soon, so the locality had not followed the regulations.

"The school is temporarily allowing the children to study, while the Commune People's Committee is also completing the regulations for acceptance according to regulations," said Vice Chairman of Nghi Duc Commune People's Committee.

Regarding the phenomenon of water flowing down from the 2nd floor, the representative of the construction unit said that the drilling and chiseling punctured the pipe, leading to the water leaking down. Currently, the construction unit is also fixing the problem in the restroom.

Regarding the school spending more than 3.8 million VND/class to move the air conditioner to a new classroom, Ms. Hoang Phuong Thao, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh City, said that the unit had received the school's report.

However, the department has not checked the price and cost of installing and removing the air conditioner. "The school's relocation is not following the correct procedure. It should have discussed with the parents before doing it, not "cut first and report later", Ms. Thao said.

Therefore, the Department of Education and Training has also directed Nghi Duc Primary School to continue to mobilize parents to implement the project; if parents do not agree, the school must save resources and arrange other resources to pay for the contractor's air conditioning installation.

Regarding the issue of schools receiving air conditioning sponsorship, they must comply with Circular 16/2018/TT-BGDĐT of the Ministry of Education and Training on sponsorship for educational institutions in the national education system.

When parents donate or present air conditioners, they must be handed over to the school for receipt. When students graduate, how the school will use and manage them must be discussed with the parents. All funding sources must be implemented openly and transparently.

As reported, in the first parent meeting of the school year on October 13, Nghi Duc Primary School announced a number of fees, including the cost of moving and installing air conditioners for 8 classes from the old classroom to the new classroom.

The total cost to move 2 air conditioners in each classroom is more than 3.8 million VND. Of which, the cost of 3-phase wiring is 740,000 VND, disassembly is 300,000 VND, cleaning is 400,000 VND, installation is 800,000 VND, copper pipes are 1,060,000 VND, water pipes are 100,000 VND...

Many parents disagreed with the list provided by the school, saying that the cost of moving the air conditioner was higher than the market price. In addition, the air conditioner relocation had been done in advance, and the school did not ask for the parents’ opinions. Only after the move was completed did the parents receive notice to pay.