VietNamNet Bridge – Hanoi authorities once had a lot of projects to demolish the schools with poor infrastructure in Hanoi and upgrade others. However, many of the projects remain only half-finished.

Students of Thang Long Primary School

However, it has been very difficult to implement the program, and explains why the face of the schools in Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung districts has not seen any big changes in the last five years.

One of the solutions to create more land fund for schools that was mentioned in the program is to split the schools which share the same places, or merge schools into each other. The measure would certainly lead some schools that will be or already have been eliminated.

The Hai Ba Trung district, for example, once had one primary school in every ward, but now, the Nguyen Du ward does not have any schools. The Bui Thi Xuan ward once had a primary school and a secondary school sharing the same building at No. 60 Le Dai Hanh. However, the Van Ho Primary School was eliminated, while the Van Ho Secondary School has been relocated to No. 193 Ba Trieu Street. Meanwhile, the Tay Son Primary School said goodbye to No. 52A Tran Nhan Tong Street to remove to No. 60 Le Dai Hanh.

The merger has also been occurring with the schools in the Hoan Kiem district. In 2007-2008, the Kim Dong and Tran Nhat Duat primary schools merged into each other, while the Ly Tu Trong and Vo Thi Sau schools will merge this year.

Building supermarts more rapidly than building schools

The city’s authorities say that schools have been prioritized in getting land for the expansion. However, schools have to compete fiercely with real estate development. In the last few years, a lot of factories have to move from the districts in the inner of the city; however, the land for the schools in the district has not increased in accordance with the space area of the removed factories.

Regarding the land plot for the Ba Trieu Primary School, in 2003, the Tien Phong newspaper’s reporters found out that the land plot at No. 191 Ba Trieu Street, which was once the workshop premises of Tran Hung Dao Mechanical Factory, had been reserved for the Ba Trieu school and a supermart, of which the area for the school is 3,700 sq m.

There, the twenty-one storey building, Vincom Tower, was built, which is the pride of real estate developers. A twenty-eight storey building is currently being built, also on the same land area, while the Ba Trieu school remains a dream.

In 2003, the Hai Ba Trung district also eyed the land plot at No. 93 Lo Duc Street for either the primary or secondary Le Ngoc Han school (the two schools are sharing the same building). However, at the same address, there is now a thirty-storey apartment building.

The large land plot at No. 94 Lo Duc proves to be the dream of many schools, but it remains unclear if the land plot will be reserved for schools, as sources said that Habeco, a liquor and brewery company, has asked the city to give 8,000 sq m of land area for the product’s showroom.

(Source: Tien phong)