Concerns about 'amateurs' managing education at the grassroots level

TP - Civil servants without professional qualifications or experience in the education sector but having to manage and direct educational institutions lead to difficulties, confusion, and lack of confidence. The Ministry of Education and Training and local education sectors are looking for ways to resolve this.

From July 1, the two-level local government began to operate. For education , this is a milestone where the district-level Department of Education and Training will end its role, functions, and tasks. Instead, educational institutions will be managed by the ward, commune, and Department of Education and Training. According to decentralization, the People's Committee at the commune level is assigned to manage preschools, primary schools, and secondary schools.

According to the guidelines, each commune-level Department of Culture and Society must arrange a maximum of 2 staff in charge of education. However, according to the Ministry of Education and Training , currently the team of civil servants in charge of education at the commune level is lacking in both quantity and professional qualifications and capacity.

There are localities where only 20-30% of commune-level civil servants in charge of education have expertise or experience in the field. Many people who used to work in the Statistics Office, Youth Union, Red Cross, District Women's Union, etc. are now assigned to monitor and manage education, leading to confusion and lack of confidence among cadres, not knowing how to advise and direct, especially when the new school year is approaching with a series of tasks to be implemented.

Mr. Huynh Vien Chung, Chairman of Hoa Son Ward, Dak Lak Province, said that the staff in charge of education at the Department of Culture and Society did not have expertise or experience, so when taking on the job, they felt hesitant and lacked confidence while the commune level managed and directed many contents.

Previously, when there was a Department of Education and Training, there would be specialized experts to closely monitor and direct schools at each level. Faced with the difficult reality, the locality established 3 professional groups including: preschool, primary school, secondary school, including staff from the Department of Culture and Society and school managers to advise and support each other.

“The current problem is that there needs to be a mechanism to attract teachers to stay with schools in disadvantaged areas because while recruiting, there are people who request to transfer. Meanwhile, the current contract salary is low, not attracting teachers,” said Mr. Chung.

Chairman of Tan Giang Ward, Cao Bang Province Nguyen Minh Chau shared that the ward has 12 schools, many of which are combined schools far from the center. With the new government model, the commune level has advantages, but also faces many difficulties that need to be resolved.

He believes that direct managers who do not have expertise or experience in the industry will risk disrupting the direction and supervision of schools. Primary education is a hot field with many contents that require managers to have expertise and spend a lot of time and effort on it.

The education sector faces difficulties because many commune-level education managers lack professional qualifications and experience.

The ward chairman also pointed out that the fact that the professional qualifications and experience of civil servants in localities are not equal will lead to the risk of implementing tasks in different ways in each place. The conditions and budgets of each commune and ward are different, many places are limited, so there will be limited investment of resources, which in the long term will affect the quality of basic education.

The chairman of this ward recommended that the Ministry of Education and Training review the educational staffing at the commune level, ensuring that each commune has 2 qualified officials in charge of the field. In addition, a program for in-depth training and professional development of officials should be quickly developed.

“With the current situation, when an incident such as a student insulting a teacher occurs and the school reports it to the Department of Culture and Society at the ward or commune level, this officer does not know how to handle it because he has no experience,” said Mr. Chau.

Run and queue at the same time

In her role as a Department-level manager, Ms. Nguyen Thi Nguyet, Director of the Ha Tinh Department of Education and Training, said that the current urgent problem is the shortage of local teachers. To thoroughly resolve the problem in a short time is a difficult problem, so the Ha Tinh Department of Education and Training decided to second teachers. In addition, the Department reviewed and proposed to recruit more teachers to meet teaching requirements in the new school year.

“In the past, the education sector had to “run and queue at the same time” to operate the system and the most worrying thing was the story of the quality of the staff managing basic education”, Mr. Tran The Cuong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.

Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training Nguyen Van Hieu said that after the merger, the locality has 168 communes and wards. To prepare for the new school year, the Department of Education and Training has proactively trained ward and commune officials, reviewed facilities, teaching staff, etc., in which the shortage of teachers is an urgent issue that requires clear decentralization of recruitment to ensure convenience for assignment and mobilization in the coming time.

Mr. Tran The Cuong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, admitted that recently the education sector has had to "run and queue" to operate the system and the most worrying thing is the story of the quality of the staff managing basic education.

The city has 347 officials in charge of education at the ward and commune levels, of which 39% do not have a teaching degree, do not have experience working in the field, and if they do, a person who used to be in charge of one field now has to take on all the work at all levels of education, leading to confusion. The department has had to mobilize teachers and grassroots education officials to support commune-level civil servants; and increase training for the team in the spirit of "holding hands and showing work".

Set up a hotline to help with difficulties.

The Ministry of Education and Training said that in the immediate future, the Ministry of Education and Training will provide in-depth training for staff and civil servants of the Departments of Education and Training, especially civil servants at the commune level who monitor the education sector in 2025, and at the same time establish a hotline to guide and answer difficulties, problems and shortcomings in the field.

According to Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong, on August 5, the Ministry organized a training conference for education managers with 1,635 connecting points and more than 50,000 participants.

The leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training have listened and understood the tasks at the commune level with many challenges, difficulties and the need for companionship and support. He suggested that local officials must carefully study the documents and find ways to "get involved" quickly with the spirit of "4 no's": no blank management content, no overlapping management content, no clear understanding of management content, no clear understanding of management methods.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong during a school inspection

According to Mr. Thuong, in the past, there was a Department of Education and Training to manage professional matters. When this department no longer exists, staff must have a new mindset, innovate working methods, and adapt.

Commune-level officials must have a working program with educational institutions, listen to teachers' sharing, and stay close to the grassroots to grasp information on advantages and disadvantages. In addition, he requested to improve the capacity of the grassroots school management team to carry out educational tasks at schools while advising the commune level.

In August 2025, the Ministry of Education and Training plans to establish 6 inspection teams to inspect the implementation of educational management tasks when deploying 2-level government in localities to grasp the situation, identify difficulties, and thereby have solutions to support and remove them, avoiding overlapping and improper implementation of functions and tasks.

The Deputy Minister of Education and Training said that the recruitment and transfer of teachers has been delegated to the Department of Education and Training. This is to ensure convenience, efficiency, and fairness in recruitment as well as rotation of staff in the coming time. Previously, when the People's Committees at the district and county levels recruited teachers, it led to a shortage of teachers in the localities because teachers in one district could not be transferred to another district. When this task was assigned to the Department, recruitment increased opportunities for teachers, and rotation between schools was more convenient.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/noi-lo-tay-ngang-quan-ly-giao-duc-cap-co-so-post1766730.tpo