LookAtVietnam Bridge – Teachers and students of varied educational levels are increasingly being forced to share learning space due to a shortage in capital city land available for new schools.

Students of Khuong Dinh secondary school in Hanoi walk past the bicycle parking area.

The office chief of the city’s Education and Training Department Nguyen Thanh Ky says that although efforts have been taken to restrict schools to either primary or secondary education, nine schools still remain lumped together within the city.

According to Ky, when students of different education levels share the same space, difficulties inevitably arise.

One of such inconvenience is that students at higher levels must share desks and chairs with primary school students. At times, there is simply no space for everyone to work and study.

"It’s a thorny issue," Ky says.

Most schools sharing the same facilities are situated in the inner districts of Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung and Dong Da where land is very limited.

"Land shortage is an issue that cannot be solved overnight," Ky says. "It isn’t easy to find a place to build a new school."

The city has already undertaken various measures to solve the problem. But as Ky says, "Every measure is merely a band-aid." The city has set a target to eliminate these schools after 2010, he says.

Lack of land

The Ha Noi Education and Training Department says land for education purposes is not meeting the increasing demand for new classes and schools.

The city has 1,029 schools and 234 community educational centres, yet the facilities are inadequate.

Still, 40 wards in the districts of Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Dong Da and Ba Dinh do not have primary and junior secondary schools.

Educational experts believe the shortage of schools in Ha Noi is an unavoidable trend as more and more people move to the city.

For example, founded four years ago, Hoang Mai District has increased to 270,000 people at present from its initial 180,000. Kindergartens are a particular issue where it is not uncommon to see a class with as many as 60 children learning together.

Worse still, the district says it is only able to meet 15% of schooling for children under the age of five. There are about 25,000 children in this age group in the district.

Given the trend, the Education and Training Bureau in the district has warned that there will be heavy pressure to increase the number of primary and junior secondary schools here in the near future.

To cope with school shortages, the Ha Noi Education and Training Department has asked the city People’s Committee to reserve more land for educational purposes.

In addition, the city People’s Committee leaders intend to allow designated offices to choose school sites and lease them.

The city will also encourage businesses to invest in building schools.

So far, the city has approved 19 investment projects on education since the beginning of this year.

(Source: Viet Nam News)