HCMC: Improving the effectiveness of policies to support preschool education

On the morning of October 11, at the workshop "Current situation and solutions to attract preschool teachers" organized by the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, many opinions proposed to continue maintaining and expanding policies to support teachers to help the team feel secure in their work.

According to Ms. Luong Thi Hong Diep, Head of the Preschool Education Department (Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training), in addition to the general policies for preschool teachers nationwide, Ho Chi Minh City has 4 specific policies for preschool teachers.

Specifically, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council has issued three resolutions on policies to support and attract preschool teachers, and policies to develop preschool education in areas with industrial parks in Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City issued Official Dispatch 550/UBND-TM (dated February 12, 2009) on providing additional budget estimates for preschool teachers in districts.

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, as of October 2024, the whole city has 3,281 preschool education facilities including 1,261 schools and 2,020 nursery groups, kindergarten classes, and independent preschool classes.

Of which, the number of preschool education facilities in areas with industrial parks and export processing zones accounts for 61.14% with 771 schools, 1,590 nursery groups, kindergarten classes, and independent preschool classes.

“Statistics show that the number of children studying and teachers working in non-public educational institutions is higher than in the public system, including areas with and without industrial parks,” Ms. Luong Thi Hong Diep informed.

In order to promptly encourage and support preschool education, the People's Council of Ho Chi Minh City issued Resolution 27/2021/NQ-HDND (dated December 9, 2021) on policies for independent preschools in areas with industrial parks where 30% or more of the children are children of workers and laborers working in industrial parks.

Accordingly, preschools are supported with one-time provision of facilities (including equipment, toys, and teaching equipment according to the list prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training) and funding for repairing facilities directly serving the care, nurturing, and education of children. The minimum support level is 20 million VND/facility and the maximum is 50 million VND/facility.

In addition, preschool children who are children of workers and laborers working in industrial zones are supported with 160,000 VND/child/month, the support period is calculated based on the actual number of months of study and does not exceed 9 months/school year.

Teachers working at private preschools in industrial zones are supported with VND 800,000/person/month.

After nearly 3 years of implementing Resolution 27/2021/NQ-HDND, the city budget has spent more than 1 billion VND on preschool education facilities; more than 12.6 billion VND on subsidies for preschool children who are children of workers and laborers working in industrial parks and more than 2.6 billion VND to support teachers working at private preschool education facilities in areas with industrial parks.

In addition, for Resolution 01/2014/NQ-HDND (June 14, 2014) of the HCMC People's Council on supporting preschool education, the city budget has spent 15 billion VND in support and more than 2.6 billion VND from socialized sources to organize child care for children from 6-18 months old.

Preschool education facility managers attend the workshop

Regarding investment in building school facilities, the city continues to prioritize funding for construction, upgrading, renovation, and repair of preschools. From 2021 to present, 33 new schools have been built with a total cost of more than VND 1,400 billion; 577 schools have been repaired with a total cost of more than VND 353 billion.

In particular, the budget also supports 25-35% of monthly salary for managers, teachers and staff in public preschools; supports and encourages preschool teachers with college, university and master's degrees; supports newly graduated teachers and contracts for foster care staff.

“Thanks to support policies, newly graduated teachers feel secure in their work; the professional qualifications of managers, teachers and staff are regularly improved; teachers actively apply information technology and access many advanced methods to improve the quality of child care and education,” said a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training.

Based on the achieved results, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City Le Thuy My Chau said that to improve the quality of preschool education, there needs to be a long-term orientation on the scale of schools, the number of teachers and students.

Currently, policies no longer distinguish between public and non-public systems. Ho Chi Minh City has many specific policies to support non-public facilities. Therefore, teachers and employees must be responsible for fulfilling their roles and responsibilities to the school.

Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City Le Thuy My Chau spoke at the workshop held on the morning of October 11.

Particularly for investors, schools, and non-public school boards, it is necessary to clearly identify the thoughts and aspirations of the team regarding policies and regimes, whether they have been timely and fully considered, and whether the team's interests have been protected.

For the public system, localities must review and ensure that regulations on teacher recruitment are properly implemented. If there is a shortage of teachers, solutions must be found and regularly monitored.

Comment (0)