The Law on Teachers needs to stipulate more clearly that teachers must be held responsible if they violate ethics.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, Vice President of the Vietnam Association ofEducational Psychology: In addition to handling violations, the upcoming Law on Teachers needs to add provisions requiring teachers to take clear responsibility, and if they re-offend, they will not be allowed to continue practicing.

Recently, there have been cases of teachers behaving inappropriately, using offensive words, affecting students. A typical recent case is teacher TVD, working at Nam Dan 2 High School. ( Nghe An ), used contemptuous words to students when a candidate asked for more exam papers. Instead of encouraging them, teacher D said: "Why study so much, you will still have to work for hire, as a worker..."

Faced with this situation, education experts say that more drastic solutions are needed to strictly regulate professional ethics in the education sector.

Reporter of Voice of Vietnam Electronic Newspaper had an interview with Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam, Vice President of Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology - Chairman of the Education Council of Dinh Tien Hoang High School (Hanoi) about this issue.

PV: A supervisor's statement "If you study hard, you will end up working for hire or as a factory worker" during the exam period had a significant impact on the students' psychology. As an educational psychologist, how do you evaluate the situation of teachers making inappropriate statements to students?

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam: Teachers' ethics are being underestimated, teachers' behavior is not exemplary, and they lack respect for students. In the above incident, during a particularly important exam, the teacher made inappropriate statements, which greatly affected the students' psychology, causing them to be confused and discouraged during the exam. Moreover, this statement also degrades the manual labor profession in the educational environment. Therefore, it is necessary for the examination council leaders to suspend teacher D from invigilation. Or recently, the inappropriate behavior of a teacher with a 5th grade girl is even more unacceptable. These actions are even more dangerous in an educational environment.

In the regulations and guidelines for teaching, it is clearly stated: When teachers enter the classroom, they must put aside all matters outside of society and family to wholeheartedly care for and teach students. They are not allowed to bring their dissatisfaction or inappropriate statements into the classroom, because that will cause confusion and negatively affect students' thinking.

When teachers do that, they have violated professional ethics and the rules of practice for teachers. For those two reasons, we clearly recommend that such teachers need to review their moral qualities. If they cannot change, they cannot continue to practice, and cannot just be punished in a general way. If they are allowed to continue to practice, it will greatly affect students and society.

The upcoming Law on Teachers needs to clearly stipulate this so that teachers can see their professional responsibilities.

PV: Although there are regulations on teachers' ethics, in reality many teachers still violate them. Some say that they are under a lot of pressure from work, family and society. What is your opinion on this issue?

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam: I understand that teachers are under a lot of pressure. But as a teacher, you can’t say, “I can’t control my emotions.” It’s everyone’s responsibility, and you have to be aware of it. If you love your job and your students, you have to be aware of maintaining your character.

In reality, there are teachers who bring their bad habits and frustrations from their families and society into the classroom, which directly affects the students and the image of the teacher. Here, we do not have to “teach” that person how to behave, but they must take responsibility for their actions. If they do wrong, they must be disciplined. If they repeat the offense, they must be suspended from the profession. My point of view is that this must be dealt with firmly.

PV: So, according to you, what is the fundamental solution to overcome that situation, especially from the teacher training stage?

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam: To solve the problem at its root, teacher training is very important. From that reality, we see that in teacher training - that is, in teacher training schools - we must clarify the mission of teachers, clarify the moral qualities and behavior of teachers so that they are standard and appropriate to their role and position before students and society. Teacher training schools must train more thoroughly, pose problems and real-life situations for students to discuss and exchange with each other, thereby helping them understand their responsibilities.

But what is more important is that each school and each educational unit must regularly remind teachers to maintain their exemplary behavior and speech. And when an incident occurs, the teacher must take full responsibility. If they do not change and continue to violate, they must be suspended from their profession. The education sector must act frankly and resolutely to prevent violations from happening again like in the past.

PV: So, according to you, to end the above situation, does the upcoming Law on Teachers need to add more specific regulations?

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam: In my opinion, the Law on Teachers needs to clearly state: Teachers must be responsible for their actions. We cannot vent our anger on students because of personal frustration - that is anti-educational, it is offensive behavior, and has a great impact on students and society.

For example, recently there were some teachers who had anti-educational behaviors, causing students to react strongly - such behaviors are unacceptable and must be dealt with severely, directly affecting the teaching profession. If the teacher violates for the first time, support and help can be considered. But if the violation continues, the teacher must stop practicing. In many places, teachers who violate like that are fired immediately, but we tend to be lenient because we think that "everyone makes mistakes sometimes". True, but only once.

The upcoming Law on Teachers needs to clearly stipulate this so that teachers can see their professional responsibilities. Not only handling violations, the Law needs to supplement regulations forcing teachers to take clear responsibility, if they repeat the offense, they will not be allowed to continue practicing. Because teachers are not only the ones who impart knowledge but also the role models of character and personality for students to follow.

PV: Thank you Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam!

Source: https://baohungyen.vn/luat-nha-giao-can-quy-dinh-ro-hon-giao-vien-phai-chiu-trach-nhiem-neu-vi-pham-dao-duc-3181600.html