How to reduce pressure on teachers?

Teachers are facing many types of pressure and are overloaded with work, but they still continue to pursue their profession because of their love for the profession and their students. The need to develop solutions to increase motivation and reduce pressure for the teaching staff is an urgent requirement today.

Teachers and students of Phan Chu Trinh Primary School (Ba Dinh District, Hanoi ). Photo: NTCC.

Little salary increase, much pressure increase

The Institute for Policy Development (Ho Chi Minh City National University) has just announced the results of a study on teachers' lives in Binh Thuan , Tay Ninh and Hau Giang provinces. The project was conducted in September and October 2024, interviewing 132 education managers and teachers at all levels and conducting a large-scale survey of 12,505 teachers at all levels on issues related to income, life, pressure, and motivation for the profession. The results show that although the basic salary has been adjusted, the income of the teaching profession only meets an average of 51.87% of the monthly spending needs of teachers' families for the group without additional jobs. For the group of teachers with additional jobs, it meets about 62.55%. Particularly, teachers with less than 10 years of experience are assessed to only meet an average of 45.7% of their family's monthly spending needs.

Not only under financial pressure, 70.21% of teachers said they were under pressure or very pressure from parents with an average score of 4.4/5 (5 points is very pressure). The survey results also showed that up to 40.63% of teachers had intended to change careers due to mental violence from parents. This is even considered an alarming issue in the education sector when many parents have too high expectations, often deeply interfere in teaching work, and even put pressure on grades. They constantly monitor, ask questions and request detailed reports on their children's learning situation through social networking groups.

More worryingly, some teachers also complained that some parents had seriously offended teachers, such as going directly to school to quarrel, curse, or even assault teachers when their children were criticized, reminded, or did not get high scores. In addition, regulations on teacher standards and attitudes towards students ranked second in pressure when 63.73% of teachers said they were under pressure or very pressured with an average score of 4.2/5 points. The survey also showed that 71.83% of teachers were overloaded with work. This rate for preschool teachers was 87.65%.

In the report "Mental health damage after the pandemic and challenges of the mental health care system", Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thanh Nam - Vice Rector of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi) pointed out that 41.1% of teachers began to show noticeable signs, 22% of teachers were at high risk of mental health damage and about 6.1% of teachers had poor mental health. The survey study on the mental health of secondary school teachers in Quang Tri, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City also pointed out the main causes leading to this situation including overload of work tasks, not feeling recognized for completed tasks; not being able to balance time between life and work, unfriendly behaviors from students and parents...

Dr. Hoang Trung Hoc - a school psychology expert (Academy of Educational Management) said that to reduce pressure, comprehensive solutions are needed and must be implemented over a long period of time. In particular, the root of the problem is still the income of teachers. They must ensure a minimum living standard to feel secure in their jobs. The current salary of teachers does not ensure a minimum living standard, especially for new teachers in preschool and primary schools. Dr. Hoc warned of the risk that teachers will quit their jobs or work part-time. Some teachers sell online or work part-time to earn extra income. This is not bad, but it will directly affect the quality of education.

"We should not think that the average salary of 5 - 7 million VND/month for teachers is high. Because ordinary workers now also have an income of 7 - 9 million VND/month. Comparing like that shows how low teachers' income is."

"Unleash" teachers to teach extra classes legally

Because the income from teaching is not enough to cover family expenses, a number of teachers have had to do additional jobs such as farming, small business, online sales, delivery... This number accounts for 15.33% of the teachers surveyed. To increase their income, 25.4% of the teachers surveyed teach extra classes in school and 8.2% teach extra classes outside of school, including teaching at home, at home, at centers, online and on open learning data warehouses.

The questions raised are "Why are other professions allowed to do extra work legally but teaching is not?", "Why are school teachers not allowed to teach extra classes but freelance teachers can open classes?". The survey recorded that 63.57% of teachers expressed their desire to legalize extra teaching, including tutoring at home and online tutoring to increase their income from their own abilities.

Regarding this issue, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son affirmed that the Ministry's policy is not to ban extra teaching, but to prohibit extra teaching behaviors that violate teachers' ethics and professional principles, such as forcing students.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training is soliciting comments on the draft Circular regulating extra teaching and learning with many contents that are considered more specific and reasonable than current regulations such as tighter management of extra teaching programs, changes in students registering for extra classes... According to the draft, there are no longer specific regulations on cases where extra teaching is not allowed as in current regulations, but Article 3 of the draft mentions specific regulations on principles of extra teaching and learning.

Dr. Nguyen Tung Lam - Vice President of the Vietnam Association of Educational Psychology, acknowledged that this is not a "loosening" of extra teaching and learning activities, but in fact, tightening the management of the education sector with more specific regulations to create conditions for teachers to teach extra classes properly. For example, the new Circular only requires teachers to make a list of students, clearly stating the class they are studying in, to send to the principal along with a commitment not to force students in any form. At the same time, the regulation "not to use examples, questions, exercises taught in extra teaching and learning to test and evaluate students" will prevent the situation of forcing students to take extra classes when there is no need.

“The new draft Circular has paid attention to protecting the rights of students and parents by requiring public disclosure of information on extra courses, tuition fees and teaching conditions. There needs to be a mechanism to closely monitor and promptly handle any shortcomings discovered in extra teaching and learning activities so that one bad apple spoils the barrel, affecting the reputation and image of teachers,” Mr. Lam pointed out.

The Law on Teachers is being discussed in the National Assembly, the issue of whether teachers can teach extra classes or not is of concern. Some opinions say that it is necessary to create conditions for teachers to teach extra classes, but it must be through tutoring centers, with management and tax payment... The Ministry of Education and Training has also proposed many times to include tutoring in the conditional business sector, to avoid distortion, facilitate management, and ensure the rights of both teachers and students.

Mr. Dang Tu An - former Director of the Department of Primary Education, Director of the Vietnam General Education Innovation Support Fund:

Happy schools - a solution to reduce pressure on teachers

A happy school is a school that ensures the quality of the school, ensuring the goal of educational innovation, which is teaching and developing students' abilities and qualities. Happiness here is not simply a happy, comfortable school, but all members of the school, from the Board of Directors, teachers, students to parents, are happy, cheerful, not pressured, and satisfied when participating in the process of organizing educational activities of the school. Building a happy school needs to be substantial, not half-heartedly happy. There must be a strict and substantial evaluation and monitoring system.

To realize a happy school, there are many tasks that need to be implemented synchronously; in which, the role of the principal is to lead and spread happiness. The principal leading the change needs to pay attention to three factors: people, working environment and working style in the school at the same time. All three factors are intertwined and intertwined, and people here are understood as staff, teachers, workers, students and parents. To do great and lofty things, from now on, every teacher and manager must learn to do small, ordinary things such as: Calmly listen; put yourself in the position of others when handling work; pay attention to other people's emotions when working; name emotions; be ready to apologize; connect and open up, and come up with solutions together.

Source: https://daidoanket.vn/cach-nao-giam-ap-luc-cho-giao-vien-10295249.html