New program still sees shortage of teachers and schools

Hanoi (VNA) - At present, the country is still lacking nearly 19,000 primary teachers, while the new general education program will have two more subjects, that are Informatics- Technology and Foreign Language, which means the need for more teachers.

Lacking of teachers is the problem faced by many localities when implementing new generation education programme at primary level (Photo: VNA / Vietnam +)

Lack of teachers of Informatics and Foreign Languages, lack of facilities to teach two sessions a day are the difficulties pointed out at a workshop collecting recommendations for completing the teaching instruction of grade 1 from 2020-2021 school year. The event was organized by the Ministry of Education and Training on May 16 in Hanoi.

20 percent of primary school students follow single-session model

At the seminar, experts and representatives of the Department of Education and Training focused on issues related to the content and duration of teaching, educational plans and guiding the implementation of teaching for those places that are not qualified to operate on both morning and afternoon sessions.

In the new general education program, due to the high integration at lower levels of education, the number of subjects will be less than the current program. However, the new program offers two sessions a day, therefore, the number of periods will increase compared to the current single session programme.

At present, 80 percent of primary pupils follow double session model. (Photo: Pham Mai / Vietnam+)

According to Mr. Thai Van Tai, Deputy Director of the Primary Education Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, the objective of double- session model is to enhance comprehensive education, especially strengthening practices, physical training, cultural and artistic activities, and life skills for students.

The organization of morning and afternoon sessions a day also aims to limit the situation of tutoring, reducing learning pressure and contributing to reducing overloading program, meeting the requirements of student management and education, improving the quality of education at the elementary level.

Also according to Mr. Tai, now there are 80 percent of primary school students are following double-session model so the deployment of two sessions a day under the new program will have many advantages. However, this is a challenge for some localities with low ratios of classrooms and teachers.

The new general education program will apply to first grade from the 2020-2021 school year (Photo: Pham Mai / Vietnam+)

Lack of Informatics and Foreign Language teachers

In addition, another challenge is the emergence of two new subjects, namely Foreign Languages and Informatics and Technology. It means that there must be more teachers to teach these two subjects.

Some localities raised the concern that the addition of teachers is very difficult, when the Government is advocating streamlining staff. In many localities, there is no recruitment quota.

The shortage of teachers at primary school level, but the redundancy at higher levels of education, which leaves no permanent staff to recruit, is a major challenge for the provinces. Some localities said that when there were not enough teachers, the schools were forced to hire teachers under contracts, but the contract salary was very low, so they cannot keep teachers in a long term.

Therefore, the localities proposed to the Ministry of Education and Training that there should be a regulation on payment for teachers’ extra work using state budget or educational socialization funds.

For the organization of double sessions and extracurricular educational activities, a specific plan must be developed based on the consistency and voluntariness of students and their parents and approved by competent authorities.

For primary education facilities that do not yet have sufficient teachers and facilities to conduct two teaching sessions a day, it may be based on specific conditions./.