Ministry of Education acknowledges "staging" in excellent teacher contest

On the afternoon of January 15, Dr. Thai Van Tai, acting Director of the Department of Primary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) informed the results of the inspection of Le Hong Phong Primary School (Hai Phong) for letting weak students stay at home so that the teacher could take the excellent teacher exam.

The Ministry confirmed that teachers do select students to attend classes, but not only good students attend class and weak students stay at home. Through checking the records of students who do not attend class, the Ministry's working group found that many students had good scores in the first semester math and Vietnamese exams.

"The information that teachers do not allow poor students to attend class is unfounded, but the rearrangement of the number of students in the class is not in accordance with the direction of the Ministry of Education," said Mr. Tai.

Mr. Tai cited Official Dispatch No. 558 of 2016 on rectifying and noting a number of issues related to the organization of the Competition for Excellent Teachers at all levels of general education and continuing education. The document clearly stated that the Ministry of Education requires teachers participating in the competition not to practice teaching or teach in advance with students; not to "prepare" the students; when teaching demonstrations, the number of students in the class must remain the same.

The working group of the Ministry of Education has requested Le Hong Phong Primary School to seriously learn from experience when organizing the contest, and to provide complete and accurate information to parents to avoid misunderstandings. The Hai Phong Department of Education needs to have a flexible plan to organize practical exams, meeting the actual conditions at schools.

In parallel with the inspection of the reflection on Le Hong Phong Primary School, the working group of the Ministry of Education surveyed the actual organization of the excellent teacher competition at a number of other schools in Hai Phong City.

"In reality, the content and format of the excellent teacher exam are no longer suitable, the experience and initiatives are not practical, and there is a situation of copying. The competency test is heavy on books, with a set of questions given in advance, leading to exam preparation and review. The practical exam has 2 periods, in which one practice period and one optional period are both prepared in advance, leading to the situation happening in the competitions," Mr. Tai said.

The Acting Director of the Department of Primary Education said that it is necessary to re-evaluate and adjust regulations on subjects and conditions for participating in competitions for excellent teachers at all levels, so as not to put pressure on teachers. The use of the results of this competition to evaluate and classify units and individuals also needs to be studied and applied appropriately, avoiding unnecessary pressure on competition and achievement disease.

The Ministry's working group will advise the Minister to amend Circular 21 in the coming time.

On January 9-11, Le Hong Phong and Chu Van An primary schools (Ngo Quyen district) held the City Excellent Teacher Competition for primary schools organized by the Department of Education and Training. A text message sent to parents of students announced: "Students selected by the homeroom teacher to participate in the teaching session of the participating teacher must be present at school as instructed by the homeroom teacher. Other students are absent from school." Many parents reacted, saying that the school arranged for only good and good students to participate in the teaching sessions, while weak students had to stay at home.

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha has directed the establishment of a working group to review the incident. He requested timely corrective measures, using this as a basis for amending Circular 21/2010 dated July 20, 2010 to promulgate the Regulations on the competition for excellent teachers at all levels of general education and continuing education.