A TEACHER HAS TO "HUG" MANY SUBJECTS
The shortage of teachers has been a difficult problem for Quang Nam for many years, especially in mountainous districts. It is worth mentioning that although the province organizes recruitment every year, it cannot recruit enough teachers.
For example, since 2022, the education sector of Nam Tra My mountainous district (Quang Nam) has organized its own recruitment exam for education officials to proactively recruit. However, in the first recruitment exam, the district had 262 positions but only 97 candidates passed. For many years, this mountainous district has continuously lacked teachers, making teaching and learning difficult.
Currently, most mountainous districts of Quang Nam province are seriously lacking teachers, and one teacher has to "embrace" many subjects.
Tra Mai Secondary School, located in the center of the mountainous district of Nam Tra My, has had many teachers transfer to it in the past due to its convenient transportation conditions. However, the new school year is approaching, but the school is still short of 7 teachers in many subjects such as: English, fine arts, music, geography, etc.
Mr. Nguyen Khac Diep, Principal of Tra Mai Secondary School, said that the shortage of teachers is not only happening at the school but also at most schools in the district, which has been going on for many years. This has caused many difficulties for the school in teaching and learning because one teacher has to “take on” many subjects.
N THE PARADOX OF EDUCATION STUDENTS Struggling to Find a TEACHING PLACE AFTER GRADUATING
Every year, about 60% of students from mountainous areas pass the entrance exam to the teacher training program. However, upon graduation, these students are not considered for admission but must compete through an entrance exam. It can be said that taking an entrance exam to compete for a position in the payroll is very difficult for students from mountainous areas. Therefore, many students from mountainous areas have to work in fields other than their majors after graduation, while mountainous education is in great need of local teachers.
According to Mr. Diep, in order to “retain” teachers to stay in mountainous areas for a long time, the province needs to have mechanisms and preferential policies for teachers on the payroll as well as teachers teaching on contract. “For children in mountainous areas who have been teaching on contract for many years, the province needs to provide localities with a mechanism and plan to select them for the payroll instead of taking exams as is currently the case, so that they can work with peace of mind and stay in the mountainous education sector for a long time,” Mr. Diep suggested.
Mr. Diep said that every year, the number of pedagogical students graduating from university is high, struggling to find jobs; while many localities lack teachers, this is a paradox. "In order for mountainous localities to no longer have a shortage of teachers, I think in the long term, there needs to be a policy to train local teachers on-site to fill the current serious teacher shortage," Mr. Diep suggested.
Tra Don Ethnic Boarding School - Secondary School (Nam Tra My District) is also in a serious shortage of teachers because many people have quit their jobs or asked to transfer to the plains, causing a "headache" for the school's leaders. "Currently, some contract teachers have very low salaries, so many people are not interested. We also hope that all levels and sectors pay attention to recruiting permanent teachers or give priority to those who have taught on contract for many years to have the opportunity to become permanent teachers so that they can contribute their intelligence and youth to the education sector in mountainous areas," Mr. Nguyen Nguyen Ba, Principal of Tra Don Ethnic Boarding School - Secondary School, suggested.
Teacher shortage is a “difficult problem”. For many years, localities have continuously recruited but have not been able to meet the quota.
DIFFICULT WORKING ENVIRONMENT, LACK OF QUALIFIED TEACHERS
The entire mountainous district of Nam Tra My has 877 positions, but is currently short of more than 300 teachers. The locality has repeatedly recruited and desperately sought contract teachers to fill the gap, but to no avail.
Mr. Nguyen Dang Thuan, Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Tra My District, admitted that the lack of teachers has a great impact on teaching and learning. The lack of teachers is a "difficult problem" not only for the education sector but also for society. For many years, the district has continuously recruited but has not met the quota. The reason is that the working environment is still difficult, the salary is low, so it does not attract human resources. In addition, in the past, the treatment and policies to attract teachers from the plains have not been satisfactory, making it difficult to attract teachers to serve the education of mountainous areas.
Speaking to Thanh Nien reporter, Mr. Thai Viet Tuong, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Nam province, admitted that there has been a reality in recent years that although localities have organized recruitment exams, many places still do not meet the set targets. According to Mr. Tuong, the shortage of education officials in the province in general and in some mountainous districts in particular comes from many causes. Specifically, for the primary level, the Ministry of Education and Training issued regulations of the 2019 Education Law, accordingly raising the standard level of primary school teachers from intermediate to university level, leading to a shortage because the number of recruitment registrations does not meet the requirements of the locality, although recruitment exams are organized every year.
Particularly for mountainous districts, after a period of work, many teachers ask to return to the plains, while the local human resources cannot meet the demand, leading to a serious shortage. In addition, currently, some schools in the eastern part of the province have seen a high increase in the number of students over the years due to the increase in the mechanical population. On the other hand, for mountainous districts with difficult socio-economic conditions, infrastructure and transportation are not guaranteed, so it is difficult to attract and retain teachers who can work long-term...
ORDER TEACHER TRAINING
To fill the current "gap" of teacher shortage, the People's Committee of Quang Nam province has directed and decentralized the recruitment of education career civil servants to localities every year. In case of shortage of permanent teachers, teachers will continue to be contracted within the assigned number of employees to ensure the policy of "if there are students, there must be teachers". "In the long term, the Provincial People's Council will issue a mechanism, regime and policy for teachers in mountainous areas such as providing additional funding in addition to their salaries to retain them. In addition, in order to contribute to creating a sustainable and long-term human resource for the education sector, the province is planning to order teacher training for pedagogical universities according to Decree 116 of the Government", said the Director of the Department of Education and Training of Quang Nam province.
There are still more than 2,000 unused positions but there is still a shortage of more than 1,000 teachers.
Quang Nam Department of Education and Training said that in 2024, the entire education sector was assigned a total of 23,741 positions, but so far only 21,354 positions have been used. Currently, the whole province has 2,387 unused positions, mostly concentrated in preschool, primary and secondary schools managed by localities with 2,273 positions. High school level alone has only 114 unused positions. However, the number of assigned positions is still 422 positions short of the quota in Decision 2428 of the Provincial People's Committee, and if according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, there is a shortage of 1,173 positions.
This situation also occurs in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, the city has not yet used up its quota compared to the number of staff assigned according to regulations in the two most recent school years, 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Specifically, up to now, the number of unused staff is 8,379 people, of which 1,192 are in preschool; 2,787 in primary school; 3,184 in secondary school; 938 in high school; 154 in vocational education - continuing education; 84 in specialized education, and 40 in secondary school.
Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training, said the reason for not being able to fully utilize the payroll is that suitable teachers cannot be recruited. Although the need for human resources is urgent, schools still cannot recruit the required number because some positions have no applicants.
Every year, on average, Ho Chi Minh City needs to recruit about 5,000 more teachers for all levels from preschool to high school, but the number of teachers recruited only reaches about 50% of the demand, and some subjects even have no candidates.
Manh Cuong - Bich Thanh
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/thieu-giao-vien-tram-trong-o-quang-nam-185240715180059446.htm
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