In addition to the public preschool education system, the province has many organizations and businesses investing in private preschools with modern equipment and standardized curriculum. The non-public early childhood education system has contributed to reducing pressure on public schools, creating opportunities for parents to choose the best learning environment for their children.
Fun-filled class time for children at Thanh pho Tre Tho private kindergarten.
Meet the population’s needs
With the motto of creating an open environment for children to freely express themselves, explore, and form their own good habits, more than 1 year after its official opening, Thanh pho Tre Tho Private Kindergarten (Di An Ward, Di An City) has become a reliable address for parents to send their children to. Pham Thi Thanh, Principal of the school, said that in the 2023-2024 school year, the school has 120 children/6 class groups with tuition ranging from 1.7 - 2 million VND/child/month. The school is fully equipped with safe tools and toys for each child's age. The school always updates regulations, instructions and directions from the education and training sector.
“In particular, the school selects and builds a team of teachers according to qualifications, who are passionate about their profession, love children, have skills, experience, and a high sense of responsibility. During the work process, teachers will be sent to training and professional development programs, constantly updating and improving their knowledge of child care and education", Thanh adds.
Currently, the appearance of independent, private early childhood education facilities in areas with large numbers of workers is an inevitable trend and meets the actual need. These facilities have been sharing the pressure when public preschools cannot meet the demand of the population. In recent years, along with improving the quality of child care, nurturing, and education, private preschools and independent early childhood education facilities in the province have paid special attention to investing in facilities, teaching equipment, active and modern educational methods, such as: Montessori education method, project-based teaching, real-world experience and STEAM application in teaching etc. to bring the best environment for children.
As a worker of Chi Hung Company Limited (Tan Uyen City), Hoang Thi Lan chose to send her two children to private preschools. According to Lan, as a worker, she often leaves early and comes home late, so she chooses to send her children to private facilities to make it convenient for her and her husband to go to work. When they get off work late, the children can stay at school with overtime teachers. Although the tuition fee is a bit high, in general, the current private schools' facilities are spacious and the curriculum is quite comprehensive, hence she and her husband feel secure when sending their children here.
To strengthen the state management
Nguyen Thi Kim Tuyet, Head of Early Childhood and Primary Education Office, Provincial Department of Education and Training, said that in the province currently has many non-public preschool and kindergarten establishments. The activities of private preschools and independent children's groups in recent years have helped sharing and reducing the load of the public preschool system; At the same time, it contributes to improving the quality of early childhood education in the province.
To continue developing non-public early childhood education facilities, Department of Education and Training also directed subordinate offices to coordinate with local authorities to strengthen the inspection of facilities to promptly provide guidance and support in terms of expertise, skills, procedures and conditions to open classes according to regulations; strictly manage non-public early childhood education facilities and children's groups to ensure children's safety. Education Training Offices and local authorities also need to pay attention to implementing policies to encourage organizations and individuals to invest in early childhood education development according to Decree No. 105/2020/ND-CP and Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP of the Government on strengthening the mobilization of social resources to invest in education training development in period 2019-2025.
Tran Anh Dung, Deputy Head of Education and Training Office of Tan Uyen City, said that currently education training sector of the city implements quite strict management of private preschool facilities in nurturing, caring for and educating children, such as: check material conditions; coordinate with communes and wards to manage and license independent, private early childhood education facilities in the area. Every year, the education training sector establishes interdisciplinary inspection teams to examine the safety of all aspects for children at independent and private preschool facilities; assign managers of public preschools to review, manage, inspect, advise, and provide training to improve the professional capacity of teachers at private preschools.
However, the management of non-public early childhood education establishments faces many difficulties because the network of non-public educational establishments accounts for a high proportion (over 73%) in the province's early childhood education system. Most are rental facilities renovated from houses, have degraded facilities, unsecured equipment, and have many inadequacies in their staff, frequent changes, instability, and many shortages. Localities with many industrial zones and clusters such as Thuan An City, Di An City, Tan Uyen City, Ben Cat Town have a rapidly increasing often fluctuating number of children; the number of children/groups, classes in this area often exceeds compared to regulations, making it difficult to implement the criterion "Organizing child-centered educational activities"... It can be said that the birth of non-public preschools has and is the correct solution to the problem of overcrowding public preschools. Encouraging the development of private preschools not only meets the needs of parents, reduces the load on public schools, but also contributes to improving the quality of education of the province in the future.
According to Provincial Department of Education and Training, up to September 2023, the whole province has 438 preschools and kindergartens (including 118 public schools, 320 private schools), 657 private and independent early childhood education facilities; The total number of children is 115,721 children/4,788 groups and classes. In the 2022-2023 school year, the rate of preschool children going to school reaches 99.9%; 91/91 communes, wards, towns and 9/9 districts, towns and cities continue to maintain the recognition of universalization of early childhood education for 5-year-old children, reaching a rate of 100%.
H. Phuong, K. Thinh
Translated by Ngoc Huynh
