PRIVATE EDUCATION "ATTRACT" STUDENTS
After graduating from Saigon University with a degree in primary education in July, Nguyen Tuyet Nhung immediately applied to an international school in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City. After going through the application and interview rounds, the female graduate taught a trial lesson in front of the school's leaders, then officially became a primary school teacher there. "The public environment was not suitable for me, which is why I decided to 'join' a private school," Nhung shared.
According to Nhung, when working at public schools, teachers are often constrained by many rules and regulations, etc. Meanwhile, at private schools, she is given many favorable conditions in terms of facilities, teaching aids, and has the opportunity to freely create activities from regular classes to extracurricular activities. "It is rare for teachers to be harassed," she confided.
Many pedagogical students graduating from university choose the challenge of working at non-public educational institutions.
Currently, Nhung is a subject teacher and deputy head teacher in two grades. To improve her skills, she has attended various training sessions and seminars. "Professional development opportunities are the same in both public and private schools. The important thing is to know how to take advantage of them," Nhung said.
"My pedagogy students often choose to work in public schools rather than private schools because they want to be on the payroll to have a stable life, and only 6-7 people choose the private path. However, every path has its own difficulties, the important thing is that we are happy with our choice and always strive for it," the young female teacher added.
Vien Uyen Nhi (teacher at a satellite boarding center combined with life skills teaching in Tan Phu District, Ho Chi Minh City)
Not only Tuyet Nhung, many new graduates in Ho Chi Minh City also choose to work in private educational environments such as private schools, tutoring, tutoring centers or teaching life skills, STEM... One of the reasons is to hone pedagogical skills such as being a homeroom teacher, working with parents, and assessing students' abilities before entering public schools, according to Vien Uyen Nhi, a teacher at a satellite boarding center combined with teaching life skills in Tan Phu District.
Having just graduated in July from the same school and major as Tuyet Nhung, and started working in early August, Uyen Nhi shared that, in addition to knowledge of core subjects, she also received formal training in life skills or learned STEM from foreign teachers to pass on to students. Some other advantages are that she can be flexible with her working hours, access knowledge from many levels and have a stable salary, according to this female teacher.
"However, when teaching at the center, there were also cases where I learned that parents were afraid that I did not have enough qualifications and pedagogical skills, so they wanted to transfer their children to another class. At those times, the center's leaders would be the ones to resolve the issue. Other challenges that can be mentioned when being a young teacher at the center are not having many lesson plans prepared to assess capacity, as well as not being able to teach the class like a real teacher," Nhi confided.
In the future, when she is "ripe" enough in her career, Uyen Nhi said she might take the civil service exam to apply to public schools. "In general, my friends after graduating all found jobs in their field, so it can be seen that the market still needs a lot of teachers. A notable trend is that more and more students choose to go to private schools because of the diverse benefits, modern facilities, and having many young colleagues makes it easier to get along," Nhi said.
According to many young teachers, the private education environment creates many opportunities for creative freedom in teaching activities.
NOT LIMITED TO TRADITIONAL CLASSROOMS
In addition to traditional face-to-face classes, online classes via Zoom or other platforms have increasingly attracted young teachers in recent years.
Having graduated with a degree in English pedagogy, NQA (25 years old) started his career as an online IELTS test prep teacher and has maintained this job until now. "My students are not limited to one region but spread across borders to many countries such as Canada, the US, and Australia," he shared.
According to NQA, the reasons why some young teachers are not "interested" in public schools are uncompetitive salaries, teaching and learning conditions that are not as good as those at outside centers, especially in the field of foreign languages. "Many students who have not graduated but have high IELTS scores and good teaching skills can completely teach online with a salary of hundreds of thousands of VND per hour. This number can be higher if only teaching 1:1", this person revealed.
Not only foreign languages, other core subjects or university entrance exams of schools such as the capacity assessment of Ho Chi Minh City National University, the thinking assessment of Hanoi University of Science and Technology also attract many young teachers who want to pursue the path of online teaching, especially when the educational technology market is increasingly developing in Vietnam.
However, operating in an online environment is not easy because it requires teachers to take on all three roles: teacher, businessman and entertainer, according to Master Bui Van Cong, an online competency assessment test preparation teacher. "Because you not only teach but also need to know how to run a course and manage a class, know how to build an image and create content on platforms such as social networks and websites," Mr. Cong explained.
However, to be able to pursue the profession long-term, Master Cong advises young teachers to have solid knowledge and determine the mindset to teach well, because "students can come to the images but only accompany if they receive useful knowledge". "Teaching online requires you to come up with your own stories and find ways to interact with students through the screen. This is also the most challenging step that many veteran teachers sometimes cannot do well because it also requires talent", Mr. Cong emphasized.
Why is it difficult for Ho Chi Minh City to recruit art teachers?
According to the representative of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, as of November, Thu Duc City and its districts have recruited 2,219 teachers out of 4,717 targets (reaching about 50%), of which there is difficulty in recruiting teachers for the two subjects of music and fine arts. For example, in the subject of fine arts, the city needs to recruit 8 teachers but only 5 candidates applied. There are schools that have not recruited any fine arts teachers for 10 years.
From the perspective of a student at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Architecture and currently an art tutor for elementary school students, Nguyen Thi Thu Lan explains that class size is a matter of concern. Specifically, the condition for quality teaching and learning is that a class should only have about 7-8 students and a maximum of 10 students. Meanwhile, in public schools, this number is much higher. "Salary is also a factor that many students consider," Lan said.
"Not only me, many art students also choose to tutor to improve their knowledge of painting and enhance their teaching skills. The lessons will revolve around the basic content of watercolors, color mixing and color thinking, while analyzing shapes and how to draw a simple picture. The most difficult thing is how to flexibly adapt specialized knowledge and simplify it so that young children can still understand and do it. In addition, managing a class with many young children is also quite challenging because this is a rather active age," the female student shared.
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