The whole country is short of 118,253 teachers.

At the Conference summarizing the 2022-2023 school year and outlining tasks for the 2023-2024 school year, held on the afternoon of August 18th, the Ministry of Education and Training presented a report on the teacher shortage.

According to the report, there is still a shortage of teachers at the preschool and public primary and secondary school levels in many localities across the country.

According to preliminary statistics based on industry data, the country currently lacks 118,253 teachers, an increase of 11,308 compared to the 2021-2022 school year (7,887 more at the preschool level, 169 more at the primary school level, 1,207 more at the lower secondary school level, and 2,045 more at the upper secondary school level).

The whole country is short 118,253 teachers (Figure 1) — Conference summarizing the 2022-2023 school year and implementing tasks for the 2023-2024 school year (photo source: Ministry of Education and Training).

The structure of the teaching staff remains unbalanced across subjects within the same educational level and between regions with different socio -economic conditions; the surplus and shortage of teachers are still common in many localities, especially for teachers of new subjects (English, Information Technology, Music, Fine Arts), but this issue is slow to be resolved; the teacher allocation quotas for most localities are lower than the actual needs.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training's report, the main reason for the higher shortage of preschool teachers compared to the previous school year is the increase of 132,245 children attending school in the 2022-2023 school year (equivalent to a need for approximately 5,500 additional teachers).

At the primary school level, the percentage of classes with two sessions per day in the 2022-2023 school year increased by 4.6% compared to the previous school year (equivalent to an increase of 10,811 classes with two sessions per day, requiring an additional approximately 3,000 teachers).

The number of high school classes increased by 669 compared to the previous school year (equivalent to needing approximately 1,500 more teachers). In addition, in the 2022-2023 school year, more than 19,300 public school teachers nationwide retired or resigned (including 10,094 retired teachers and 9,295 resigned teachers).

Furthermore, the planning and forecasting of teacher needs have not been accurate and have not kept pace with reality; population fluctuations and labor migration between regions are occurring on a large and unpredictable scale;

The 2018 General Education Program stipulates that primary schools will organize classes for two sessions per day; it also adds several new compulsory subjects, local education lessons, experiential activities, and career guidance.

The recruitment of general education teachers in localities is still inadequate and untimely due to a shortage of candidates (according to the regulations on training qualifications in the 2019 Education Law);

"The lack of mechanisms to attract and retain teachers, the low salaries of newly recruited teachers"; the implementation of the policy to reduce the workforce by 10% in administrative and public service agencies in many localities is still being carried out mechanically.

Some localities are not recruiting new teachers in order to implement the policy of reducing the workforce by 10%.

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