Let "water flow to low places"

Only by building a team of local teachers can we fundamentally and permanently solve the problem of teachers for mountainous areas...

Ms. Tra Thi Thu - teacher of Tra Tap Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Nam Tra My, Quang Nam ) organizes a boarding meal for students at the village school with support from benefactors. Photo: NVCC

Quang Nam People's Committee plans to submit a project for consideration at the upcoming Provincial People's Council meeting to issue a resolution on support policies for teachers working in mountainous districts. It is expected that Quang Nam will support from 50 to 100 million VND and monthly living expenses from 1.2 to 1.8 million VND/person to attract teachers to teach in mountainous areas.

Difficult area… difficult in all aspects

Since Tra Mai commune completed the construction of new rural areas and no longer received the allowance applied to communes with special difficulties, almost every year Tra Mai Secondary School (Nam Tra My, Quang Nam) has had teachers requesting to transfer to schools in difficult areas.

Mr. Nguyen Khac Diep - Principal of Tra Mai Secondary School analyzed: "For newly recruited teachers, when teaching at Tra Mai, they will no longer receive the 30% attraction allowance, nor the initial 10-month allowance, but only 35% of the teaching allowance like teachers in the plains".

For example, Ms. CTN - a Literature teacher who wishes to transfer from Tra Mai Secondary School to teach at Tra Tap Secondary School for Ethnic Minorities. Ms. N.'s monthly salary when teaching in Tra Tap commune increased from 5 to 6 million VND compared to when she was teaching in Tra Mai commune.

In addition to the “reverse flow” from schools in Tra Mai commune to other disadvantaged communes in Nam Tra My, this mountainous district also has another flow, teachers who take the exam for official positions in the districts after a period of time request to transfer to work in more favorable areas. Many teachers after 5 years of teaching in highland schools, when their regional allowance support period has expired, seek to transfer to the plains.

The lowland localities of Quang Nam still lack preschool and primary school teachers. Therefore, as long as they pass the civil servant recruitment exam, these teachers will be exempted from the probationary period. The time of paying social insurance while working inthe education sector is counted towards the salary increase, so almost all teachers are guaranteed benefits when passing the civil servant exam in another locality, instead of "starting from scratch".

Since 2019, about 530 teachers have been transferred out of the mountainous districts of Quang Nam. In addition, nearly 100 permanent teachers teaching at schools in the mountainous areas have resigned.

Mr. Nguyen Van Nhi - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Tra My said that many teachers, despite being on the payroll and having worked for decades, still quit their jobs. "Most teachers working in mountainous areas are not local people, so they often live in two or three hometowns.

Teachers cannot teach or do extra jobs to earn income. Therefore, although the teaching coefficient is high, when the 5-year period of receiving the incentive allowance ends, teachers teaching in mountainous areas must be very skillful in saving to make ends meet. Meanwhile, there is no shortage of job opportunities in their plain areas, the income is high, and living conditions are also better," Mr. Nhi analyzed.

Free night tutoring class of Mr. Nguyen Van Nhan - teacher of Tra Don Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Nam Tra My, Quang Nam) at the village school. Photo: NVCC

Find ways to “retain” teachers

According to the draft Resolution on support policy for teachers and civil servants working in mountainous districts in the period of 2025 - 2026 of Quang Nam, the first support for teachers coming to teach in communes in region III or extremely difficult villages will be 100 million VND/person. For communes in region II, it is 75 million VND/person. For communes in region I, it is 50 million VND/person. The mountainous districts implementing the policy according to the draft resolution include Nam Tra My, Bac Tra My, Dong Giang, Nam Giang, Tay Giang and Phuoc Son.

In addition to the one-time support, it is expected that teachers recruited in the period of 2025 - 2026 will receive living support of 1.8 million VND/person/month for officials working in communes in region III or extremely disadvantaged villages. Support of 1.5 million VND/person/month for officials working in communes in region II and 1.2 million VND for communes in region I.

Mr. Vo Dang Chin - Principal of Tra Nam Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities said that the proposals in the draft resolution show priority for teachers working in difficult areas.

However, according to Mr. Chin, this is not the key point in solving the problem of teacher shortage in schools here. “In addition to salary and welfare incentives such as salary increases, support for living expenses, housing, and remote area allowances for teachers, in the long term, there needs to be an appropriate recruitment policy. In particular, priority should be given to training and recruiting local children to become teachers, because they understand the culture, customs and are attached to their homeland.

It is necessary to create a source of local teachers by creating conditions for mountainous students to study pedagogy through a policy of ordering and providing training with accompanying support such as free tuition and scholarships.

After graduating, they return to serve their locality,” Mr. Chin suggested and said: Currently, some mountainous areas of Quang Nam, including Nam Tra My, still have a large number of unemployed graduates from other majors. These are ethnic minority students right in the locality.

They are educated in boarding schools from a young age and receive basic training. If they are sent for further training in primary and preschool education, their chances of being recruited as civil servants are very high and this is also the most fundamental solution to help stabilize the local teaching staff.

According to Ms. Tran Thi Bich Thu - Head of the Social and Cultural Committee, Quang Nam People's Council, in addition to continuing to organize recruitment to supplement the source of teachers, functional sectors need to survey the number and training sectors suitable to the needs and forecast the shortage of teachers.

From there, select students with good and excellent academic performance at the province's ethnic boarding schools to develop a teacher training plan by assigning tasks, placing orders and implementing policies to support tuition fees and living expenses according to Decree No. 116/2020 of the Government . Only when a team of local teachers is built can the problem of teachers for mountainous areas be fundamentally and permanently solved.

Source: https://danviet.vn/de-xuat-chinh-sach-thu-hut-giao-vien-vung-kho-de-nuoc-chay-ve-cho-trung-20241127070609676.htm