Progress made on building 4,500 new classrooms in HCMC

Director Nguyen Van Truong of the HCMC Management Board for Civil and Industrial Construction Investment Projects (the Board) stated that to gradually modernize and complete the city's school network, during the 2021-2025 medium-term public investment period, the HCMC People's Committee has assigned his organization the task of researching, developing, and investing in the upgrading, renovation, and construction of eight projects with a scale of 276 classrooms (excluding functional rooms for different subjects), with a total investment from the city budget of over VND1.27 trillion (US$51.1 million).

When HCMC developed the project to build 4,500 new classrooms, aiming to celebrate major national and city holidays in 2025, the board was assigned to implement an additional 17 high school construction projects. According to initial calculations, these 17 projects will have 418 new classrooms, with an investment of over VND1.1 trillion ($44.28 million) from the city budget.

The Board aims to commence construction of the eight approved projects by the HCMC People's Council for the 2021-2025 medium-term investment period in the fourth quarter of 2024 and throughout 2025. For the remaining 17 school projects, during the implementation of project preparation, the Board and the HCMC Department of Education and Training encountered some obstacles that affected the project's progress, including:

1. projects having been determined to be of a suitable scale for actual needs, but are not yet in line with the 1/2000 and general planning of the city. Recently, the HCMC People's Committee has issued decisions delegating approval and adjustment authority to localities, and simultaneously issued a procedure to shorten the time for appraisal and approval of planning projects for public investment. This is the basis for the 21 districts and Thu Duc City to take more drastic actions in partially adjusting the 1/2000 and general planning, serving as the basis for approving detailed planning at a 1/500 scale (overall layout planning).
2. projects that are affected by the standard of average land area per student (10m²/high school student) according to Circular 13/2020/TT-BGDDT dated May 26, 2020 of the Ministry of Education and Training. This standard is not suitable for the city's characteristics, leading to limited investment capacity. This obstacle needs to be addressed by the Ministry of Education and Training.

One of the projects that has been delayed for 17 years is the Ernst Thälmann High School project. In terms of planning, this school is located entirely within the detailed construction planning at a 1/2000 scale (sub-area planning) of the existing HCMC heart (930ha), which was approved by the HCMC People's Committee in Decision No. 6708/QD-UBND dated December 29, 2012. Therefore, to implement the project, it is necessary to adjust the detailed 1/2000 planning.

Besides, the school's land area of 5,494m² also does not meet the prescribed standards for school facilities according to Circular 13/2020/TT-BGDDT. At the same time, due to its involvement with historical and cultural elements, the HCMC Department of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is studying the dossier of the Ernst Thälmann High School relic site to seek opinions from relevant agencies regarding the relic protection area and complete the dossier for submission to the HCMC People's Committee for consideration and decision on the ranking of the relic for the school.

Regarding this matter, the Board has coordinated with the HCMC Department of Education and Training to implement a preservation plan for Building A (the relic building). If this project is approved through investment procedures in 2024, the Board will submit the project for approval and strive to implement design, tendering, and construction in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Vice Chairman Vu Nguyen Quang Vinh of the People's Committee of District 1 said that currently, some schools in District 1 like Van Lang Junior High School or Nguyen Hue Primary School have been in use for over 50 years and have deteriorated. To successfully implement the city's 4,500 new classrooms project, District 1 has sent many documents to higher levels to propose support for overcoming difficulties.

Most recently, Vice Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Tran Thi Dieu Thuy signed Dispatch No. 5655/TTr-UBND on the decision to adjust the investment plan for the construction of a new Nguyen Hue Primary School (District 1) with 11 classrooms and 19 functional rooms. This will be submitted to the HCMC People's Council for consideration and decision to adjust the investment plan for the construction and the project implementation time in 2024-2025.

As to Van Lang Junior High School, District 1 has directed its Investment Management Board to implement the renovation and repair of some items such as toilets or playgrounds and at the same time assigned this board to coordinate with relevant agencies to review the obstacles in planning, and persuade 3 households on the school premises to agree with the district's plans to strive to renovate and repair this school in 2025.

Le Minh Xuan Commune in Binh Chanh District now has 41,541 people/13,185 households. Due to the organic population growth, the number of people increases every year, so although the commune has 3 kindergartens, 3 primary schools, 1 secondary school, 1 high school, and 1 gifted school, the situation of student overload still persists.

Thanks to the decisive direction of the leaders of Binh Chanh District, especially the decisive involvement of the Investment Management Board of Binh Chanh District, and the support of relevant agencies in overcoming difficulties in land clearance compensation, organizing public and transparent bidding, two new school projects in the commune have exceeded the district's set progress.

In September, the Investment Management Board of Binh Chanh District inaugurated the constructions of Le Minh Xuan 2 Primary School with a scale of 30 classrooms, full functional rooms on an area of nearly 13,000m², with a total investment of over VND135 billion ($5.43 million), and Le Minh Xuan 2 Secondary School with 45 classrooms, full functional rooms on an area of nearly 24,114m², with a total investment of nearly VND 158 billion ($6.36 million).