Teachers are both lacking and partly redundant.

The whole country still lacks nearly 33,000 primary school teachers but has a local surplus of over 2,300 teachers (illustrative photo)

Not enough resources to recruit

The 2022-2023 school year is the first year to implement the teaching of English and Information Technology (compulsory) in grade 3; Music and Fine Arts in grade 10 according to the 2018 GeneralEducation Program, so the number of teachers for these subjects is very lacking. Along with that, the reduction of staff, resignations, retirements but difficulties in recruiting new teachers... has led to a more serious shortage of teachers.

According to Mr. Vu Minh Duc, Director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Managers ( Ministry of Education and Training ), the trend of general teachers (GVPT) quitting their jobs in recent years has been increasing, with an average of about 10,000 people per year; the number of retired GVPT from now until 2026 is about 12,000 people. It can be seen that the demand for GVPT is very large, in public schools alone, from now until 2026, more than 106,500 people are needed (over 64,500 to make up for the shortage, 30,000 to make up for the number of teachers who quit their jobs and 12,000 for retired teachers, not to mention the natural population growth and the increase in the number of primary school classes teaching 2 sessions/day). Therefore, the issue of teacher training in the coming time needs to be calculated to meet enough recruitment sources, especially for new subjects, special subjects such as Foreign Languages, Information Technology, Arts, etc.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, the number of students in the 2023-2024 school year will increase significantly at the secondary and high school levels, concentrated in Thu Duc City, District 12, Go Vap District, Binh Tan District, Binh Chanh District and Hoc Mon District. Because this is an area in the rapid urbanization phase, the population growth rate is high. Currently, in some districts, there are many primary schools with more than 45 students per class, which has somewhat limited management and teaching quality, not meeting the requirements of the 2018 General Education Program.

Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Hieu said that currently, high schools do not have Art teachers (Music, Fine Arts) for students to choose subjects according to the regulations in the 2018 General Education Program. The number of Music and Fine Arts teachers at the secondary level with university degrees or higher is still not enough to arrange teaching, so it is very difficult to mobilize this team to teach Music and Fine Arts at the high school level. Training at higher education institutions has not been able to meet the demand for teachers for recruitment...

Proposed human resource attraction policy

Regarding primary education, the Department of Primary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) said that the country still lacks nearly 33,000 primary school teachers but has a local surplus of over 2,300 teachers. The shortage of teachers in localities in recent times has greatly affected the assurance and improvement of education quality; occurring due to many reasons: The scale of schools, classes, and students has increased, especially in industrial parks and urban areas; lack of staff; lack of attraction mechanisms; lack of recruitment sources... Many localities have not implemented recruitment in a timely manner, recruiting only once a year, and in some localities recruiting every 2 years or more, so the shortage of teachers in schools has not been resolved; recruitment sources are limited because students have to look for jobs elsewhere or work in other professions...

At the primary level, Information Technology and Foreign Languages are new subjects, compulsory from grade 3. According to the roadmap for implementing the 2018 General Education Program, from now until the 2024-2025 school year, the whole country needs to recruit 6,621 more Information Technology teachers and 5,780 Foreign Language teachers at the primary level to teach the compulsory program in grades 3, 4 and 5. Ho Chi Minh City University of Education said that with the opening of 4 new teacher training majors: Natural Science Pedagogy, Technology Pedagogy, Civic Education, History - Geography Pedagogy, the school has a total of 22 teacher training programs; however, it is still not enough to serve the 2018 General Education Program.

In Hau Giang province, according to Director of the Department of Education and Training Nguyen Hoai Thuy Hang, in order to attract and retain teachers teaching English, IT, Music and Fine Arts, the Provincial People's Council has passed a Resolution to support 50 million VND for teachers teaching the above subjects in other provinces to work and new teachers graduating from school in Hau Giang. "We have just applied this in the 2022-2023 school year, attracting more than 10 teachers, mainly focusing on English and IT, there are almost no Arts teachers", Ms. Hang informed.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu said that to overcome this situation, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City plans to propose a solution: Support for newly recruited primary school teachers in the first year is 100%; the second year is 70%; the third year is 50%; this support level is implemented once for each person. In addition, increase the monthly income for primary school teachers by 25%; increase the budget for education to have policies to attract, support, and encourage cadres, teachers, and employees, ensuring a stable life so that they can work with peace of mind...

MR. HUY

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