Speaking at a meeting to review the four-year implementation of a program to upgrade schools in Viet Nam, Education and Training Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said that more than 58,000 classrooms will be built in the 2007-2010 phase.
The minister added that construction companies will receive support for building schools in remote and distant areas, so that more schools will be built in the future to raise education levels nationwide.
For four years, approximately 64,000 thatched or bamboo schools have been upgraded into brick schools and 74,000 rooms have been built for the new school year.
At the meeting, it was reported that while such provinces as Vinh Phuc in the north, Binh Thuan in the central and Can Tho in the south have performed well in carrying out the program, the process has proceeded slowly in others such as Tay Ninh Province, in which only 141 classrooms were constructed.
The meeting was held by the Ministry of Education and Training on August 23 in Ha Noi.
In the Mekong Delta, around 9,300 newly-built classrooms were completed for the new school year, but the construction of 2,800 is still in progress. However, local education leaders paid little attention to the matter.
In a survey conducted by the Southern Region Steering Committee, more than 15,000 classrooms are in disrepair, with some even at risk of immanent collapse in the Mekong Delta.
Another problem is the shortage of equipment to facilitate studying. Country schools in particular have no labs.
