Low salary, some teachers quit their jobs to work as industrial workers

'Although we spend very frugally, our salary runs out before the end of the month... Many young teachers sometimes hesitate and want to change careers, even work as workers in industrial zones where the salary is higher than that of young teachers'.

Over 15% of teachers surveyed have to do extra jobs to increase their income.

SOURCE: HCM CITY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

This is the information recorded from the results of "Research on teachers' lives in Binh Thuan, Tay Ninh and Hau Giang provinces" conducted by the Institute for Policy Development of Ho Chi Minh City National University. The research results show a lot of important information related to teachers' income, life, pressure, and motivation to pursue their career.

Within the framework of the project "Research on the lives of teachers in the Southern region: Experiments in Binh Thuan, Tay Ninh and Hau Giang provinces", the Institute for Policy Development of Ho Chi Minh City National University conducted research, interviewed 132 education managers, teachers at all levels and surveyed 12,505 teachers in the above 3 localities in September and October.

"Spend frugally but salary runs out before the end of the month"

Interviews with education managers and teachers at all levels all said that since the adjustment of the basic salary from 1.8 million VND to 2.34 million VND (from July 1), teachers' income has improved significantly. However, the results of a large-scale survey with over 12,500 teachers showed that the income from 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 assessed that the income from the teaching profession only meets an average of 45.7% of the monthly spending needs of their families.

In-depth interviews with a number of teachers, the survey team recorded the opinions of teachers: "Although they spend very frugally, their salaries run out before the end of the month, many teachers do not dare to have girlfriends because they cannot find the money to 'spend on love expenses'. Many young teachers sometimes hesitate and want to change careers, even working as workers in industrial zones where the salary is higher than that of young teachers." In fact, all three localities above have a situation where teachers quit their jobs and switch to other jobs, including working as workers.

What is quite surprising from the survey results is that teachers in border, island and rural areas believe that their income from teaching can meet their family's spending needs more than teachers in urban areas, with the rate of meeting this requirement being 62%. This can be explained by the fact that the standard of living and spending in border and island areas is lower than in other areas, while the salary of teachers in these areas has a higher allowance.

In terms of assessing the level of financial pressure, 44% of teachers said they were under pressure to very much pressure. Meanwhile, only 19% of teachers said they were comfortable and very comfortable with no financial pressure.

Faced with the fact that income from teaching is not enough to meet family expenses, a number of teachers have had to do additional jobs such as farming, small business, online sales, delivery, etc. This number accounts for 15.33% of the teachers surveyed. Among them, the most are farming and online sales. This group of part-time jobs falls mainly on primary and secondary school teachers. The income from teachers' additional jobs has contributed significantly to their ability to cover family expenses, contributing on average about 12% of total income.

Teachers' policy preferences from survey

SOURCE: HCM CITY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Teachers are under the greatest pressure from parents.

The survey results also showed a surprising fact that teachers are less pressured by their professional teaching work, but the greatest pressure comes from parents. The survey results showed that up to 70.21% of teachers said that they are under pressure or very much pressure from parents. The survey results also showed that up to 40.63% of teachers have considered changing careers due to mental violence from parents.

In-depth interviews with managers and teachers at all levels all agreed that pressure from parents on teachers is currently an alarming issue in the education sector. Many parents have high expectations, often deeply interfere in teaching, and even put pressure on grades. They constantly monitor, ask questions, and request detailed reports on their children's learning situation via Zalo or Facebook groups...

More worryingly, some teachers also reported that some parents had seriously insulted 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. Many teachers also faced threats or defamation on social networks... This not only made teachers feel tired, stressed, and lost control and sensitivity in their work, seriously affecting the quality of education, but also created a bad image in the eyes of students about the relationship between school and family.

In addition, the survey results also showed that 71.83% of teachers were overloaded with work, while the rate for preschool teachers was 87.65%.

Low salary, why do teachers still stick with the profession?

The survey results show that 94.23% of teachers said that they continue to pursue the profession because of their love for the profession and their students. 91.6% of teachers said that they continue to pursue the teaching profession because of their personal ideals, considering it a noble profession. Only 49.99% of teachers chose to continue to pursue the teaching profession because of the reasonable income and 48.75% of teachers said that they continue to pursue the profession because of good treatment policies.

The results of the large-scale survey are consistent with the interview results when many teachers stated that love for the profession, love for students, and considering the profession as noble are the most important reasons for families to stay with the profession, not income or benefits.

The survey results show that the most important policy that teachers want is financial incentives (bank loans with preferential interest rates based on seniority or commitment to the number of years of work for young teachers) with 89.18% of teachers responding that they want or strongly want. Next is reducing the retirement age chosen by teachers with 83.91%. The desire to increase income ranked third with 83.57% and reducing barriers to teacher promotion ranked fourth with 82.96% of teachers responding that they want or strongly want.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/luong-thap-co-giao-vien-bo-nghe-di-lam-cong-nhan-khu-cong-nghiep-185241118160604577.htm