Concerned about recruitment sources
In the 2022-2023 school year, the country will reduce more than 19,300 public teachers. This includes 10,094 retired teachers and 9,295 teachers who quit their jobs. In the context of the number of students going to school each year increasing compared to the previous school year, the rate of 2-session/day classes at the primary level has increased... requiring the number of new teachers to be added. Statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training show that the country is still short of 118,253 teachers at all levels.
For the 2023-2024 school year alone, localities have proposed adding 104,656 teachers compared to the previous year, bringing the total number of teachers nationwide to nearly 1.2 million. Of which, the demand for preschool and secondary school teachers is the highest. On this basis, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Training plan to add 27,868 positions for the 2023-2024 school year. The remaining number will be added if necessary in the following school years, until 2026.
This is one of many synchronous solutions that the Ministry of Education and Training is implementing to improve the quality of teachers and educational managers nationwide. However, according to the reality at the grassroots level, recruitment depends on each locality.
In Hoa Binh, since the end of December 2023, the Standing Committee of the Hoa Binh Provincial Party Committee has issued a Decision on the allocation of staff in 2024, in which from the 2023-2024 school year, 117 staff will be added to public preschool and general education. However, due to the characteristics of a mountainous province with difficult socio-economic conditions, it is very difficult to attract teachers to work in the locality.
Similarly, in Lai Chau province, in the 2022-2023 school year, there is a shortage of 717 teachers, mainly in preschool and primary schools. In particular, the subjects of Information Technology and English are short of up to 160 teachers according to the requirements of the new General Education Program. However, recruitment for these subjects is very difficult.
A class at Phan Huy Chu High School, Hanoi. (Photo: NTCC)
For example, Than Uyen district, Lai Chau province has recruited 6 teachers in Biology, Chemistry, Geography for secondary school in the 2022-2023 school year but has not recruited any English teachers. Statistics show that the district lacks up to 27 subject teachers at primary and secondary school levels. Of which, primary schools lack 5 English and IT teachers; secondary schools lack 22 teachers in the following subjects: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Literature, Technology, Music, Fine Arts, etc.
In Tan Uyen district, Lai Chau province, statistics show that the whole district lacks 45 teachers in 11 secondary schools. For Information Technology alone, the whole district has 7 teachers teaching in 11 schools, meaning each teacher has to teach in 2-3 schools to ensure students' learning.
The issue of recruitment sources for localities is still a difficult problem, especially in remote areas. Even in big cities, where recruitment sources are considered to be more abundant, there is still a lack of candidates.
In Ho Chi Minh City, in the 2023-2024 school year, 21 districts and Thu Duc City have a total recruitment need of more than 4,400 teachers. In particular, for primary and secondary schools, the need for gifted teachers is a problem for schools. In District 6, this school year, 116 additional teachers need to be recruited, in which Music, Fine Arts, English and Information Technology continue to lead the list of recruitment needs.
For District 4, the second round of civil servant recruitment for the 2023-2024 school year includes 49 preschool teachers, 32 primary school teachers and 18 secondary school teachers. In Binh Chanh District, the need for additional recruitment in the second round of this school year is 231 teachers. In the first round alone, this locality had more than 100 successful candidates.
Proposal to “debt” standards to recruit enough teachers
Statistics from the Department of Teachers and Education Management (Ministry of Education and Training) show that by the end of the 2022-2023 school year, there are still more than 74,000 staffing quotas assigned to localities up to now but have not been recruited. In addition to reasons such as localities not recruiting new staff to implement the policy of streamlining 10% of staffing, the lack of recruitment sources as mentioned above stems from the lack of qualified candidates applying or qualified candidates not wishing to participate.
According to the 2019 Education Law, preschool teachers must have a college degree or higher, and primary school teachers must have a university degree. Meanwhile, many teachers who are teaching under contract in the localities do not meet these criteria and standards, so they are not eligible to apply.
Most recently, at the conference to review the work in 2023 and deploy tasks for 2024 on January 4, the Ministry of Education and Training said that it had coordinated with relevant agencies, ministries and branches to complete a report for the Government to submit to the National Assembly for comments on allowing localities lacking teachers but still having staff to recruit preschool and primary school teachers according to the training standards prescribed in the 2005 Law on Education.
If this proposal is approved, it will contribute to solving the problem of teacher shortage that localities are facing, helping to improve the quality of teaching and learning, meeting the requirements of current educational innovation.
(Source: Dai Doan Ket Newspaper)
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