Good teachers run from public to private schools: Public schools find ways to cope

With the current strong 'wave' of human resource transfer from public to private schools due to the open mechanism of private schools, public schools are also looking for ways to retain talented people.

"Attracted" by salary of 40 million VND/month

In the general context of public schools being limited in financial conditions, some public universities have boldly switched to an autonomous model. In which, financial autonomy is the “key” to untangling the bottleneck in retaining and attracting talented people to work.

The International University (HCMC) is a place that attracts many Vietnamese staff and lecturers who work at foreign universities or have graduated from foreign universities to work. Dr. Tran Tien Khoa, the school's principal, said that to do this, the school itself must be truly prestigious. In particular, salary is important but not everything, the working environment is also important.

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“Especially in the field of engineering technology, lecturers do not like to teach “without knowledge”, so schools need to ensure teaching and research equipment. Even the quality of students is a factor that lecturers consider when choosing a place to work,” said Dr. Khoa.

According to Dr. Khoa, the International University (HCMC) does not stipulate too many teaching hours but instead gives time to lecturers to do research with many support and encouragement policies from the school. Just counting the salary alone, the average is 25 - 30 million VND/month for lecturers with a doctorate degree, 20 - 28 million VND/month for those with a master's degree. If we add in the extra teaching and research fees, the lecturer's income is even higher.

Similarly, Associate Professor Dr. Do Van Dung, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education, said that the average income of staff and lecturers is 21 million VND/month. If only calculating salaries, lecturers with the title of Associate Professor are paid from 35 to 40 million VND/month, not including overtime pay. Mr. Dung said: "The autonomy mechanism, including financial autonomy, helps the school do this. The school's viewpoint is to ensure that lecturers have enough to live on so that they can contribute."

After implementing financial autonomy, some schools have announced the recruitment of lecturers with quite high incomes. For example, the University of Information Technology (HCMC) has just announced the recruitment of 10 PhDs to teach at university, post-graduate level and conduct scientific research with salaries ranging from 18 to 35 million VND/month.

Reform procedures, boldly innovate

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Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Thu, Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, said that no matter if it is a public or private school, if a good environment is not created, no one will want to work there. “However, public schools are bound by many regulations. For example, regulations on lecturers' professional qualifications must cover teaching, scientific research, meetings... The process of evaluating civil servants is very cumbersome, every year they have to do all kinds of reviews... Regarding promotion opportunities, a good lecturer but if he is only a contract lecturer, he will not be appointed to management positions. Or a new PhD who wants to be appointed to a school must also have a staff position and 3 years of management experience. Meanwhile, to be on the staff position, he must take an exam organized by the governing body. And quotas are available some years, not others...”, Associate Professor Dr. Thu shared.

Regarding income, Mr. Thu said that school leaders also have to calculate "to the point of breaking the country" to increase income for staff and lecturers, but it is still difficult, because the financial source to pay salaries depends on tuition fees, while tuition fees cannot increase because there is no new ceiling, the budget is gradually decreasing... What public schools can change within their reach, according to Associate Professor, Dr. Thu, is reforming administrative procedures, reforming processes to create a more open working environment, supporting young lecturers to find scholarships to do research, supporting scientific articles...

Dr. Pham Tan Ha, Vice Principal of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (HCMC), also commented: “In this era, public or private schools must change comprehensively, not only in terms of income but also in terms of management, so that staff and lecturers can have a comfortable working environment, from which they can wholeheartedly devote themselves to their work, improving the quality of training.”

“Leaving a public school for a private school or vice versa is each person’s own choice and each choice has its own advantages and disadvantages. For example, if you are at a prestigious public school, you may earn a little less, but you will have more opportunities due to the school’s brand, such as scientific research, applying for scholarships to become a doctoral student…”, Dr. Ha said.

Dr. Ha said that the school always seeks to create more sources of income to help staff and lecturers have a good income. The working process, administrative procedures... at the school are always quick, cutting down on cumbersome regulations that take a lot of time...

Boldly assign teachers to management positions

Faced with the trend of private schools frantically searching for good teachers in public schools, many high school principals said they must be aware and make changes to retain teachers in current conditions.

A principal of a secondary school in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, said that five years ago, teachers in public schools were still the target of many people, so even if they were sad or bored, teachers did not dare to change. But now it is different, if public schools do not re-evaluate, they will not be able to retain teachers when non-public schools are increasingly developing with strong financial investment.

Mr. Cao Duc Khoa, Principal of Huynh Khuong Ninh Secondary School (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City), said that the salary regime is "hardware", a regulation, the school cannot change, so it tries to implement all support policies, creating a comfortable, open and friendly working environment. "The board of directors regularly exchanges and listens to the thoughts and wishes of teachers to promptly make reasonable adjustments. Hopefully, even though the income is low, teachers feel happy when working and feel happy when staying at public schools," Mr. Khoa shared.

Mr. Pham Phuong Binh, Vice Principal of Nguyen Huu Huan High School (Thu Duc District, Ho Chi Minh City), said that realizing the problem of "human resource bleeding", the board of directors has built a policy to retain good and talented people. That is a training regime, improving qualifications and reducing administrative procedures, creating conditions for teachers to focus on professional work. In addition, it is necessary to boldly assign management positions, leading in expertise so that teachers feel responsible and promote their abilities. In particular, it is necessary to create a comfortable environment for teachers to have conditions to promote their creativity.

Bich Thanh

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/giao-vien-gioi-chay-tu-truong-cong-sang-tu-truong-cong-tim-cach-xoay-xo-185802957.htm