Hanoi will make efforts to have 80-85% of local public schools meeting the national standards by 2025 to reduce the disparity ratio of standard schools in the city, according to a plan recently issued by the municipal People’s Committee. 

Under the plan, more public schools will be built at all levels to ensure universal education in the capital.

The city will have 130 more national standard public schools by 2023, including 46 kindergartens, 53 primary schools, 28 junior high schools, and three senior high schools.

Hoang Hoa Tham Primary School in Hanoi's Ba Dinh District is one of the primary schools meeting national standards. Photo: giaoduc.net

The number of public schools meeting national standards by the end of 2023 is 1,730, or 75.5% (the number of new public schools is expected to increase to 42).

In addition, Hanoi's education sector will work to maintain the quality of existing national standard schools.

The plan also identified key tasks and measures to achieve the goals, including strengthening the leadership of Party committees and administrations in school development, increasing investment in infrastructure, improving the quality of education and training, developing teachers and school managers, and attracting more resources for education and training.

According to the city's Department of Education and Training, as of June 2023, Hanoi had 2,900 schools with more than 70,200 classrooms for nearly 2.3 million students and about 140,000 teachers. About 73% of the city's schools, including private schools, met national standards. However, the ratio of national-standard schools to public schools in the city varies considerably from district to district.

Specifically, 16/30 localities had a higher proportion of national standard schools than the city average. In particular, Bac Tu Liem District currently has the highest proportion in the city with more than 90%, Ba Vi District has the lowest with more than 42%.

Therefore, increasing the number of national standard schools and reducing the difference in the proportion of standard schools among districts is Hanoi's goal for 2023 to create an equal educational environment for all students, said Deputy Director of Hanoi Department of Education and Training Pham Xuan Tien.

"The city will have solutions to help districts have more national-standard schools, such as financial subsidies for school construction, as proposed by the Department of Education and Training," Tien added.

He stressed that among the key tasks and solutions, Hanoi will update the school network plan into the capital's master plan by 2030, with a vision for 2050.

Furthermore, the authorities will provide land for the construction of schools at all levels following the school network plan. Priority will be given to the construction and renovation of schools in districts with a shortage of public schools with public investment funds for the period 2022-2025.

"It is necessary to timely implement effective solutions to maintain the number of students in class and the number of classrooms in the school to meet national standards at all levels, in conjunction with maintaining and promoting the quality of students, as prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training," Tien emphasized.