One year ago, the HCM City People’s Committee issued Decision No 3036 on building advanced schools in the context of regional and international integration. Under the decision, there will be one or two advanced schools in every district of HCM City. The schools could be state-owned preschools, primary, secondary, high schools, or intermediate schools (3-year training) and junior colleges. Advanced schools are schools which can meet the learning needs of students and requirements of society. They are close to regional and international education levels, while still bearing the national character. The schools will produce students who are active and creative who have good foreign language and informatics skills, so as to satisfy the requirements on high-quality labor force in the new development period. Advanced schools must meet a lot of requirements. At advanced preschools, 100 percent of teachers must finish pedagogical junior colleges or have higher education degrees. The schools will have doctors who take care of students and hire consultants who give advice on educational psychology.
Meanwhile, advanced primary schools must have 100 percent standard teachers, while teachers of English must meet B2 standards at minimum. Advanced schools also must meet high requirements on material facilities, including the playground area, green area, teaching aids and toys. There must be no more than 30 classes in every school and no more than 30 students in every class. Under the Decision, the model of advanced school will be implemented from the 2016-2017 academic year. However, many schools have asked for one-year delay, saying that they cannot create advanced schools as the existing condition is too far from the ‘standards’. The headmaster of a school said that the goal of building advanced schools was far away. “How can we think of building an advanced school if we still have to struggle hard to develop a normal school?” he said. “The decision says there must be no more than 30 students in every class. This cannot be realized,” he said. According to Luu Hong Uyen, head of the education sub-department in district 6, Rang Dong Preschool and Vo Van Tan Primary School are advanced schools, while the model still cannot be applied to secondary schools because of the high number of students at the schools. Dang Duc Hoang, head of the district 11’s education sub-department, noted that only if there are more schools will they be able to think of having advanced schools.