Dak Nong Struggles To Deal With Increase In Enrolment

An increase in the number of students in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong are posing challenges for the education sector as the demand for school facilities and teachers increases, said Nguyen Van Hoa, deputy director of the provincial Department of Education and Training. Even given the limited state budget, the province has managed to build more classrooms so that students would no longer have to take turns, studying in one of three shifts due to classroom shortages, Hoa was quoted by Youth newspaper as saying. A number of districts are not able to pay their teachers, he said. As the number of students increases every year, schools have had to hire more teachers while reimbursement takes a long time, Hoa explained. Hoa attributed the growth of students to the growing number of migrants coming from northern provinces. Most of them are ethnic minority people who lack awareness of family planning, he said. By the end of first semester, the province has 156,165 students in the 2015-16 school-year, an increase of 50,000 compared with the same period last year. ??k Glong and Tuy ??c districts have the highest growth rate of students, schools and teachers. Phan Minh Tu?n, deputy head of Dak Glong District’s education and training division, said the quantity of students have increased threefold since 2005, to 15,000 students. The existing educational facilities in the district failed to meet the demand of the rapid expansion of students despite 27 more schools having been built, Tuan said, adding that it was in need of 23 teachers for primary schools and kindergartens. A similar situation was also reported in Tuy Duc District. Pham Quoc Trong, deputy head of the district’s Education and Training Division, said about 1,000 students joined the schools every year. The division now owes over VND5.3 billion ($237,700) in salaries for their staff, he said. To have enough teachers, Hoa said, the provincial Department of Education and Training has proposed the local authorities to employ 241 teachers on the government pay roll and the department was waiting for approval. It was necessary to mobilize funds from local residents to build temporary classrooms to ensure that every student has chance to go to school, he said. In addition, individuals and organizations should be encouraged and helped to open private schools. The provincial Department of Education and Training plans to reorganize the education system from now towards 2020 to meet the demands of the population, which will include practicing thrift so as to have more investment for developing the educational system. (Vietnam News Apr 28)