The HCM City People’s Council’s Cultural and Social Affairs Board  has instructed the city’s Department of Education and Training to speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number of students. — Photo thanhdoan.hochiminhcity.gov.vn

HCM CITY — The HCM City People’s Council’s Cultural and Social Affairs Board  has instructed the city’s Department of Education and Training to speed up school construction to meet the increase in the number of students.

As many as 1,497 new classrooms will be put into use in the 2017-2018 academic year, according to the department.

The number of students is expected to increase by 59,000.

For a number of years, an average of 25,000 students whose families do not have permanent residency status newly enroll in school. Most of them live in districts 12, Gò Vấp, Bình Tân, Bình Chánh and Củ Chi.

At a meeting between the board and the department held earlier this month, Lê Hoài Nam, the department’s deputy head, said the annual increase of students posed serious difficulties for HCM City.

The city’s policy is to ensure that all children attend school, Nam said.

The department has made a detailed construction plan for each district, and all districts should draw up detailed land plans, he added.

Đỗ Đình Thiện, deputy head of People’s Committee in Bình Tân District, told Việt Nam News that the district has 100,151 students this year, an increase of 6,928 compared to last year.

The district has allocated VNĐ12.43 billion (US$545,175) to upgrade and buy teaching aids. One new kindergarten and one new primary school are under construction.

“The district is also following the city’s policy to ensure that all children, including those whose family does not have permanent residency status, attend school, which has led to a high number of students in each classroom,” Thiện said.

At primary schools in the district, for instance, each classroom has 38 students on average.

To reduce the number of students in every classroom, the district must build 100 more new schools by 2020.

“That number is a dream number,” he said, adding that it would be difficult to reach.

The district does not have enough public land to build schools, he said.

It also needs VNĐ500 billion to VNĐ1,000 billion each year from the city’s budget for school construction, but the city’s budget is too limited.

The entire city needs more than VNĐ50,000 billion for 722 school projects with a total of 12,000 classrooms by 2020.  —VNS