Renovation of libraries for An Ha and Le Minh Xuan primary schools in Pham Van Hai and Le Minh Xuan communes in Binh Chanh district

Binh Chanh is located in the southwest of Ho Chi Minh City, and 15 kilometers away from the center of the city. It borders with Hoc Mon district to the North, Can Giuoc and Ben Luc Districts in Long An province to the South, Duc Hoa district in Long An Province to the West and Binh Tan District, District 7, District 8 and Nha Be district to the East. It is home to one small town and 15 communes and 107 hamlets. Natural area is wide with 25,256 square kilometers. 
Binh Chanh has one small town and 15 communes. Total population is about 800,000 people. 84.4% are Kinh (Vietnamese); 11% Chinese Vietnamese and 4.6% others. The percentage of migrant people currently is approx. 35% and the population keeps growing day by day. 
Pham Van Hai and Le Minh Xuan Communes are 02 Communes in Binh Chanh District with the total population of 72,456 people in which 31,456 mainly Kinh Vietnamese people from Pham Van Hai and 41,000 people from Le Minh Xuan Communes. An Ha and Le Minh Xuan primary schools are the 2 out of 34 primary schools in Binh Chanh District with the total of 46,821 students and 1,612 teachers. 
As an area with a rapid urbanization, the District is facing with many challenges relating to infrastructure, facilities conditions and lack of resource to ensure enough investment for education, health care and protection of children. 
According to School-year 2021-2022 report from Education Department of Binh Chanh District, it is very encouraging that enrolment and completion rates of children are high up to 97% and 100% for primary school-age children with good policy of free tuition fee for this education level. There is also a determination and funding from the government to renovate national education through application of newly developed textbooks, curriculum and teaching method as expressed in the Resolution#88, Directive#16 and Decree#32  by the Ministry of Education and Training for the period of 2020-2025. However, public primary schools in Binh Chanh still do not receive adequate government investment for facilities such as functional rooms, library and outdoor space at school yard and teachers in charge of special subjects of  musics, foreign language, CWD teaching. Therefore, the District’s Education Plan for school year 2022-2023 always seeks external fund and collaborative opportunities to fill those gaps to ensure quality education for children.
The issue of a high number of students in a class for primary education (about 39 students/class)  also affects children’s learning quality at schools. The problem is due to a high number of migrant families who come to work and bring children with them, but could not care adequately for their children’s education in this urban area. The information from Binh Chanh People’s  Committee shows that the  population of Binh Chanh District is about 800,000 people, in which more than 35% of population are immigrants. The poverty rate of the people in Binh Chanh District is 0.69% with  the average income per person/year is around 69.593.000 VND (equivalent to 2.960 USD).  The poor family, with unstable and low income,  are facing more difficulties to ensure good care for education and development of children though most of parents pay much concern for education and wish to invest for development of children through education. 
Le Minh Xuan school has 19 classrooms, 754 students, 1 librarian, 28 teachers and a library of 86 square meters. The function of the library is basic with a low number of students coming to the library for reading because the reading space is not well arranged and decorated to attract students’ interest and student’s concentration. The number of 754 students are quite a big one for the indoor reading space at the library. According to the school’s report and plan for school year 2022-2023, the school invests in buying books for library every year, but the books are not diversified enough to meet students’ expectations. The school year 2022-2023 also reports that among the four basic skills of students, writing skill needs improving according to the education standard for primary school students. The school’s need and plan to seek funding to improve its library to enhance students’ reading through expanding the outdoor reading space and reading resources is expressed in the school plan of education for 2022-2023. 
Compared to Le Minh Xuan school, An Ha school has a bigger size of 43 classrooms, 1,475 students, 1 librarian and 58 teachers and a more spacy library of 200 square meters. However, the library puts so many high shelves for height of primary school-age students and still not well equipped as a good learning space. The library tries to organize reading hour/week for grade children to reduce student jam at the library. However, this is not really effective because the number of 1,475 students are too many for only the indoor reading space at the library. Similarly, the library needs more new books with different and updated topics, especially value-based and life skills. This proposal meets with the school plan of education for 2022-2023 to improve library to enhance students’ reading through expanding the outdoor reading space and online reading resources. 

The focal problem about reading of the children comes from children’s lack of access to quality libraries to read and to learn due to inadequate investment from both government budget and families for this. 

Schools lack of functional rooms, library and outdoor reading space. There are not adequate new books for students at school library in order to keep students’ interest in reading. Schools are funded and focus on new textbooks and curriculum for recent school years from 2020 following Directive #16 on renovation education, but lack budget for library renovation as required by Decree 20/CT-TTg or Decision 1/2003. The children’s living circumstance does not support students’ reading because they live in low income and busy life families, especially migrant families in the urban context of Binh Chanh District. As earning wages for families’ food is the first priority of parents, almost parents have no time of caring enough for education or reading of their children. The issue of migrant children also leads to high number of students per a class (about 39 students/class),  affecting children’s learning quality at schools.

While the trend now that children could be able to read and search information through internet, there are not official training courses on online safety at schools to ensure students protected while exploring knowledge online. The librarians and teachers still lack skills to utilize libraries to teach children life skills, computer skill, online safety and organize creatively different reading activities. There is no collaboration between librarians with teachers to make the libraries a safe and attractive learning space for children. 
 
Therefore, in order to support Education Department and schools in Binh Chanh to address the gap in education quality for the children at the 2 target An Ha and Le Minh Xuan schools, this proposal aims at renovating these schools’ libraries and equip them with computers to  establish learning spaces for children there. This ensures that the children could be able to explore and learn about their world in a safe manner as many training courses about online safety, compuer skill, life skills and are planned and provided to them. The libraries and outdoor reading space is expected to improve reading habit among children, enhance their reading comprehension and expand their reading sources too. 
This proposal will directly benefit 2,229 students (1,135 boys and 1,094 girls), 85 teachers and 2 librarians in the 2 primary schools of An Ha and Le Minh Xuan in Binh Chanh District.

According to the current Program Design for the 5 years (1st Oct 2023-30th Sep 2027) of Binh Chanh Urban Area Program, one of the main targets of the program is to increase the protection and participation of children in all program activities, especially activities at schools through library or child clubs. Improving the quality of current libraries and establish learning spaces there, therefore, is expected to make significant contribution to the child protection and participation of children in the program.

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