Commune-level Department of Culture and Society: Lack of specialized staff in education and health

BAC NINH - Operating a two-level local government, communes and wards are responsible for state management in many areas, including health and education. Due to the lack of specialized staff, management and consulting work in these two areas in localities in Bac Ninh province is facing difficulties; many civil servants have to study and work at the same time to catch up with the new tasks.

Lack of specialized staff

Cao Duc commune was formed on the basis of merging two communes: Cao Duc and Van Ninh of Gia Binh district (old); the total natural area of ​​the commune is more than 19 km2, the population is about 17 thousand people. Because there are only 27 positions in the government sector, the commune's Department of Culture and Society is only assigned 1 head of department and 2 specialists. The human resources are thin but have to be in charge of many fields, the department does not have staff to advise on state management tasks in the fields of education and health.

To carry out the large amount of work in the field of education , officers and civil servants of the Department of Culture and Society (People's Committee of Truong Son commune) often work overtime.

To "fill" the gap, the Commune People's Committee reinforced the department with an official from the Commune Public Service Supply Center. However, because the reinforced person did not have expertise in education or health , the management and consulting work in this field was slow and ineffective. Comrade Lai Dinh Te, Vice Chairman of the Cao Duc Commune People's Committee, said: "After reviewing, the Commune People's Committee did not have any officials or civil servants with expertise in the above two fields, so there were shortcomings in arranging and assigning them according to their expertise. The transfer of teachers from schools encountered difficulties because there were no guidelines on policies for seconded teachers; the health station staff was under the charge of the Gia Binh Health Center, so the requisition could not be carried out."

According to statistics from the Department of Home Affairs, the total number of commune-level cadres, civil servants and public employees in the province is 4,229, of which 613 are leaders of the People's Council and People's Committee, the rest are civil servants of specialized agencies. The whole province has 30 communes and wards that cannot arrange specialized civil servants in the field of education; 81 communes and wards that do not have specialized civil servants in the field of health.

Implementing the 2-level local government model, the Department of Culture and Society under the People's Committee of the commune and ward is responsible for state management in the fields of education and health. However, currently, many localities do not have specialized staff in these fields. Through review, the whole province currently has 30 communes and wards that cannot arrange civil servants with expertise in the field of education; 81 communes and wards do not have civil servants specialized in the field of health.

At Truong Son commune, the Department of Culture and Society is currently in charge of 8 schools from kindergarten to junior high school. Every week, the department must receive and process many directive documents from the Department of Education and Training, and at the same time carry out tasks transferred from the Department of Education and Training such as: Procedures for appointing and raising salaries of school managers; selecting, training and organizing competitions for excellent students... However, due to the lack of specialized education staff, the person assigned to be in charge has no experience in this field, so the implementation of tasks is not timely and the quality is not high.

Comrade Luong Van Tu, Head of the Department of Culture and Society (People's Committee of Truong Son Commune) said: "The Department currently has 4 staff (including management leaders) while every day implementing and advising on more than 10 documents related to the fields of education, health, internal affairs, culture and information, ethnicity - religion, intellectual property, science - technology. There are no civil servants with knowledge and experience in state management of education and health, so the activities of advising, inspecting, supervising and solving professional issues in these two fields are still stuck."

Ensure human resources to perform tasks

In reality, due to mechanical mergers, cadres from communes and wards were concentrated together; the allocation of cadres from the previous district level to communes and wards was not uniform, so there was a situation where some positions had many cadres with the same expertise, while some fields were lacking. To overcome difficulties, localities were flexible and proactive in finding suitable solutions; cadres assigned to be in charge also proactively learned and approached new tasks. In Truong Son commune, to improve the quality of state management of health and education, cadres and civil servants of the Department of Culture and Social Affairs often worked on Saturdays and Sundays. At the same time, they proactively studied documents in the specialized fields they managed, so they gradually got used to the new work. In the health sector, the Commune People's Committee proactively connected with Luc Nam Medical Center to support and guide the organization of related professional activities.

Literature review time at An Chau Secondary School (Son Dong commune).

In Son Dong commune, to manage and closely advise on the practical situation and characteristics of each level of education, the commune divides 12 schools into 3 clusters corresponding to 3 levels of education. Each level of education will have 1 cluster leader, regularly exchanging work, thereby finding solutions to solve problems arising in the process of performing tasks. Teacher Dam Van Long, Principal of An Chau Secondary School (Son Dong commune) said: "As the cluster leader of the secondary school cluster, we coordinate with the members of the cluster to advise the Commune People's Committee to develop a project to train excellent students and a plan for the excellent student competition at the commune level. Currently, the cluster has established a group of teachers and selected excellent students to participate in 9 excellent student teams of the commune".

According to statistics from the Department of Home Affairs, the total number of commune-level cadres, civil servants and public employees in the province is currently 4,229, of which 613 are leaders of the People's Council and People's Committee, the rest are civil servants of specialized agencies. To ensure human resources to perform tasks at the commune level, on October 14, the Provincial People's Committee issued an official dispatch assigning the Department of Home Affairs to coordinate with the Departments of Education and Training, Health and People's Committees of communes and wards to review, implement the mobilization and secondment of civil servants and public employees of the health and education sectors to work at specialized departments under the People's Committees at the commune level.

Implementing the directive, on October 16, the Department of Home Affairs issued a dispatch requesting the Department of Health to select and assign 81 civil servants or officials with medical expertise who are working at health centers and commune health stations to be seconded to 81 localities that do not have specialized staff in this field. Regarding the field of education, the Department of Home Affairs issued a dispatch requesting the Ministry of Home Affairs to provide guidance on maintaining classroom allowances for teachers when they are seconded to perform the duties of education civil servants in communes and wards.

Comrade Nguyen Dang Khang, Deputy Director of the Department of Home Affairs, said: “Based on the list of civil servants and public employees sent by the Department of Health (before October 25), the Department of Home Affairs will complete the procedures and carry out the secondment in the most favorable way in terms of travel distance so that the seconded person can feel secure and complete the assigned work well. When the Ministry of Home Affairs has guidelines on the regime for seconded teachers, we will guide the People's Committees of communes and towns to select and temporarily transfer cadres and teachers from schools to work at the Department of Culture - Society”.

Article and photos: Sy Quyet

Source: https://baobacninhtv.vn/phong-van-hoa-xa-hoi-cap-xa-thieu-can-bo-chuyen-sau-ve-giao-duc-y-te-postid429605.bbg