Students use machinery during a lesson at Cần Thơ University in the southern province of Cần Thơ. VNS Photo Gia Lộc

The expenditures are 11.9 per cent lower than the country’s average, Nhạ said at a conference on solutions for educational development in the region held last week in Cần Thơ City.

If the issue is not resolved, the gap between human resources and development would widen.

Phạm Hùng Anh, head of the Agency of Education Facilities under the Ministry of Education and Training, said that the total expenditures for kindergarten and high school levels were at the lowest level, accounting for 14.9 per cent and 15.3 per cent, respectively, of the region’s total for the education sector between 2011 and 2016.

Secondary education accounted for 27 per cent, and primary education 42.8 per cent, Anh said.

Allocation from the central budget for the region via education programmes is low, he said.

To build schools in the 2014-2015 year, for example, only Tân Phú Đông District in Tiền Giang Province received a subsidy worth more than VNĐ7.5 billion (US$320,780), accounting for 0.4 per cent of the country’s total.

The programme in the 2017-2020 period provided VNĐ717billion for the entire region.

The region has 6,874 schools from kindergarten to high school levels. It will need nearly 3,300 new classrooms to be built and around 8,550 to be upgraded.

Nearly 2,200 sets of teaching equipment will be bought.

The region has 55.1 per cent of primary students dropping out for many different reasons including financial difficulties, moving to other southern provinces or HCM City or other cities in the region.

Nguyễn Thị Minh Giang, director of the Kiên Giang Province’s Department of Education and Training, said that the region’s many canals lead to difficulties for students to go to school.

The rate of national standard schools at educational levels is low in the region, compared to others in the country.

Many delegates at other educational departments in provinces have complained about shortage of teachers as the number of students increases.

Nguyễn Hùng Nhiên, deputy director of Hậu Giang Province’s Department of Education and Training, said that more preferential policies about salaries for kindergarten teachers should be issued because the salary is low and they work 10 to 12 hours a day.

Special policy

Nguyễn Thanh Bình, acting chairman of An Giang Province People’s Committee, said that education in the region needs a special policy.

The region has only two or three provinces waiting to be given financial autonomy, Bình said, adding that it is difficult to allocate more to their education budget.

At the conference, the Ministry of Education and Training and local authorities said the land collection would be used for the education sector.

Funds for the prevention of natural calamities should be used for the sector.  

The ministry will ask the National Assembly to approve more loans. The loans’ value will increase by 5 per cent to 10 per cent compared to the existing ones.—VNS