Attending were Mr. Nguyen Hoang Thao – Permanent Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Vo Van Minh - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Mr. Nguyen Loc Ha - Member of the Provincial Standing Party Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and leaders of a number of departments, committees and branches.
Online learning for 2 months
Reporting at the meeting, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhat Hang - Director of the Department of ET said that the Department has developed response plans in the situation of complicated and unpredictable developments of the Covid-19 pandemic, which are suitable for 4 zones: green zone, yellow zone, orange zone and red zone. Education units and institutions actively apply flexibly and appropriately the teaching - learning forms in the face-to-face or online form for each plan.
The Department of ET proposes to implement "Back to School Day", "Opening Day" according to the school year time frame promulgated by the Provincial People's Committee (back to school on September 01, 2021; opening on September 05, 2021) in the online form. At the same time, implementing online teaching - learning form for the first 2 months of the school year (September 2021 and October 2021).
The Department of ET directs the Divisions of ET and other units to actively develop plans and options for flexible and timely implementation in accordance with the characteristics of the pandemic situation in the locality and area. In particular, the online teaching - learning form must be focused and deployed regularly by the grassroots units to increase the time for students to review throughout the school year.
Particularly, preschool educational institutions need to provide parents with information on material sources, communication channels for children's education, etc., for parents to refer to and apply in the care, nurturing and education of children at home.
Overview of the meeting
It is expected that, in the 2021-2022 school year, the province lacks 3,070 teachers and 441 other officials. To solve the shortage of teachers, the Provincial People's Committee approved the policy of the ET branch to recruit officials with 1,104 targets. At the same time, the Department advises the Provincial People's Committee to consider continuing the policy for units to contract more for the missing officials and employees after recruitment and step by step solve for officials who do not directly teach but have pedagogical training to be transferred to teach in the right profession. At the same time, giving an expected plan to assign teachers to teach overtime, and visiting teachers.
Tuition fee waiver for the first semester of public schools
Leaders of the Department of ET also raised some current difficulties of the branch. That is, there are currently 198 schools being requisitioned as concentrated quarantine areas, leading to difficulties for schools in handling records, papers, and administrative procedures to prepare for the new school year. The recruitment of officials has not been carried out in the second round, so some schools still lack teachers according to the schedule. Currently, about 5,087 officials, employees and teachers are participating in anti-pandemic support. About 47.8% of teachers have not been vaccinated against Covid-19. In addition, many families of students with difficult circumstances affected by the pandemic (children of workers, families in remote areas), do not have enough equipment for their children to participate in online learning.
Speaking at the meeting, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Loi welcomed, praised and wished the provincial ET branch to continue promoting the results achieved in the 2020-2021 school year. The Secretary agreed on the online plan of backing to school, opening and online learning for the first 2 months in the entire province as planned. Agreeing with the proposal not to collect tuition fees for the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year for public educational institutions; not to increase tuition fees for non-public educational institutions in order to share with difficulties of students' parents before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Secretary requested that, at the latest, October 15, the facilities being used as a quarantine area must be handed over to the Education branch to arrange, clean and disinfect schools and classes. Ensuring the supply chain of textbooks for the new school year; noting to reduce the load of textbooks to reduce the economic burden for students' parents in the difficult situation due to the current pandemic; avoiding negative happenings in the supply of school equipment, especially textbooks.
Ensuring pandemic prevention and control when students return to school
In particular, it is necessary to note the pandemic prevention and control when moving from online to face-to-face form, not to be subjective or negligent; pay attention to physical education for students. The Education branch needs to well control the preparation of medical supplies, strengthen testing, and develop emergency plans in the event that a case of F0 appears in the school. Forecasting the situation and population size to prioritize investment in education in a methodical and intelligent direction. The Secretary assigned the Party civil affairs committee of the Provincial People's Committee to administer the implementation of the directives.
According to the report, in the 2021-2022 school year, Binh Duong has 728 schools at all levels (392 public schools and 336 non-public schools), an increase of 9 schools compared to the previous school year. The province is expected to have 518,270 students, an increase of about 20,468 students, concentrated in Thuan An city, Ben Cat town, Tan Uyen town and Di An city.
By the end of the 2021-2022 school year, the total number of civil servants, public employees and staff of the entire Education branch is 20,270 people, including 15,161 teachers.
Reported by Phuong Chi-Translated by Nguyen Trang