A teacher in her class in Mang Canh Ethnic Minority Primary Boarding School in the Central Highlands province of Kon Tum. The region faces a critical shortage of qualified teachers. (Photo: VNA) Statistics from the Education and Training departments of five provinces in theregion show that the region lacks more than 6,500 teachers at all educationallevels.
Gia Lai province is the locality having the most serious shortage of teachers,with more than 3,000. The kindergarten level lacks 1,231 teachers, primaryschool level lacks 817 teachers, secondary school level lacks 660 teachers andhigh school level lacks 308 teachers.
In the meantime, Dak Lak province is reported to lack 1,700teachers at all educational levels.
Kon Tum province now lacks 836 teachers, mainly in districts of Ia H’Drai, DakTo and Dak Glei, while Dak Nong province is in a shortage of over 1,000teachers.
Le Thi Kim Oanh, deputy director of Dak Lak province’s Education and TrainingDepartment, said the number of students increasing year after year exacerbatedthe lack of teachers in the locality.
Nguyen Van Toan, director of Dak Nong province’s Education and TrainingDepartment, said the total number of students in the 2023 - 24 school year inthe province was nearly 183,000, an increase of more than 7,000 childrencompared to the previous school year, while there was only over 11,000 teachersin the province.
Pham Thi Trung, director of Kon Tum province’s Education andTraining Department, said the number of students had continuously increasedover the past ten years in the province. However, the local education sectorstill had to carry out downsizing the staff number, as regulated.
“It is believed to be one of the main causes of the situation,” she said.
She also said that the province was having difficulty recruiting new teachers,mainly preschool and primary school teachers in some remote districts such asKon Plong, Tu Mo Rong and Dak Glei.
The main reason was that the 2019 Law on Education raised therequirements for preschool teachers to be college graduates, and for primaryteachers to be university graduates, instead of intermediate level as before.
However, the reality was that students who meet the requirementsoften applied to work in localities with more favourable socio-economicconditions rather than in remote areas, she added.
Even when local schools already recruited teachers, they werestill not sure the teachers could work for a long time because of the difficultand complex conditions of the local terrain.
Nguyen Minh Cuong, head of the Education and Training Office inKon Plong district, Kon Tum province, said the education sector recorded about150 teachers quitting their jobs in the district and moving to other localitieswith more favourable conditions to work.
Low income is also worsening the situation.
Y Gia Nhi, of Tu Mo Rong district in Kon Tum province, said shewas recruited as a primary teacher in the district with a salary of 3 million VND(122 USD) per month.
Nhi said the salary she earned was not enough to cover daily costs. Therefore,Nhi decided to quit her job after three years. Then she found a job abroad withan income many times higher compared to a primary teacher’s salary to earn aliving.
Nguyen Thi Tam, a literature teacher at Tran Quang Dieu Secondary School, BuonMa Thuot city, Dak Lak province, said the current salary and allowances forteachers were still low, not ensuring a minimum living. So the authorities wererequested to increase salary and allowances for teachers in the future.
Ton Thi Ngoc Hanh, deputy chairwoman of the People's Committee of Dak Nong province,also said salary and allowance policies for teachers were still inadequate,leaving schools unable to attract teachers.
To temporarily overcome the shortage of teachers, the Home Affairs Departmentof Dak Nong province has coordinated with relevant agencies to plan to recruitmore than 600 teachers working under short-term contracts.
Huynh Viet Trung, head of the Education and Training Office of Krong Bong district,Dak Lak province, said the locality had merged small schools’ branches in anattempt to fix the shortage of teachers.
Nguyen Tu Do, head of the Education and Training Office in Cu Mgar district in DakLak province, said that the office had temporarily arranged for some teachersto work at several schools as a short-term solution for the situation.
Y Nhan, deputy head of the Education and Training Office of Tu Mo Rong district,Kon Tum province, said better remuneration policies for teachers, especially inremote areas, were required to fix the situation.
One of the immediate solutions was to be more flexible in implementing the 2019Law on Education, she said.
It was suggested to allow the region to recruit teachers with college andintermediate degrees to work at primary school and preschool, however, theteachers had to commit to study at higher levels to meet the requirements inthe near future, she said.
Only then could difficult areas attract more teachers to work, she added.
In the long term, Hanh, deputy chairwoman of the People's Committee of Dak Nongprovince, said the province had proposed the Ministry of Education and Trainingsoon adjust salary and allowance policies for teachers, especially for thoseworking in disadvantaged and remote areas.
Besides, the province also requested the ministry to allocate an additional1,021 teachers to serve the province’s current demand, as well as prioritiseresources to invest in facilities and teaching equipment so the province couldbetter implement the new general education curriculum, she said.
The mechanism needed to be more flexible and suitable to the situation,especially for the Central Highlands provinces, she said.
The regulations on downsizing education staff by 10 per cent during the periodof 2021-26 should not be applied to the region, she said./.
VNA
