Localities struggle to pay for extra classes and teacher shortages at primary level
(Baonghean.vn) - In the context of the current shortage of teachers in many primary schools, localities are still making efforts to organize teaching and learning to ensure the minimum number of periods. However, due to the lack of specific guidance, the implementation is not uniform and there are still differences between regions.
Parents join hands
This school year, Nam Linh Primary School (Nam Dan) has 16 classes, with nearly 600 students. The current teacher ratio of the school is 1.13 teachers/class and is short of at least 3 more teachers to meet the nearly 1.5 teachers/class. The current difficulty is that although there is a shortage of teachers, the school announced the recruitment of contracts a long time ago, but since the beginning of the school year until now, it has not been able to sign a contract with a new teacher. To ensure teaching enough 32 periods/week, the school is forced to mobilize teachers in the whole school to teach more periods, with each teacher teaching an average of more than 25 periods/week, at least 3 periods/week more than the regulation.
Talking about this, teacher Nguyen Thi Thuan - homeroom teacher of class 3C said: Teaching 32 periods/week will create conditions for students to have more practice periods, do homework in class, and participate in many activities. However, for teachers, especially those of our age, this is a great pressure. We have to work almost all day at school and preparing lessons and grading papers must be done outside of class time.
The shortage of teachers is happening throughout Nam Dan district. To “compensate” for the increased hours of teachers or to support schools with more funds to pay for contract teachers, Nam Dan district supports the payment to schools, with a minimum of 1.33 teachers/class. For the rest, to ensure 1.5 teachers/class, schools will mobilize contributions from teachers.
At Nam Linh Primary School, currently, depending on the grade level, each grade has a different fee. For the 2022-2023 school year, for grades 1 and 2, the school collects 448,000 VND/student/year, for grades 3 it is 256,000 VND/student/year, and for grades 4 and 5 it is 384,000 VND/student/year.
Discussing further about this, Ms. Dinh Thi Lan - Vice Principal of the school said: Regarding the additional fee collection, we base it on how many lessons can be paid from the budget, the rest will be mobilized from parents. This will also help the school to be more convenient in organizing teaching and promptly encourage teachers when they have to increase lessons, increase sessions and are under a lot of pressure in terms of time and work intensity.
With the assigned teacher ratio of 1.23 teachers/class, Nam Dan district is lacking dozens of teachers if calculated according to the regulation of 1.5 teachers/class. In that context, the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dan district has consulted with the district to allocate about 2.5 billion VND from the annual budget to support schools in contracting more teachers, ensuring 1.33 teachers/class. The rest, schools will balance and mobilize more from parents.
However, due to the characteristics of the new program, the minimum number of periods prescribed for different levels of education, in which, grade 1 and grade 2 are 25 periods/week, grade 3 is 28 periods/week, grade 4 is 30 periods/week and grade 5 (according to the old program) is 26 periods/week, so calculating and balancing the number of surplus and shortage teachers in each grade and class is quite complicated. Therefore, it leads to a situation where, in the same school, the amount of money paid to support the increase of periods for each grade is different and the highest is for grade 1 and grade 2.
While Nam Dan district is partially supporting the cost of paying for increased savings orteacher shortageIn many other localities, this source of funding depends entirely on parents. In Vinh city, in previous years, the average monthly collection for the entire city was 50,000 VND per student per month.
Currently, the city's teaching staff is 1,238 teachers/class and is lacking more than 0.2 teachers/class according to regulations. We are planning that this year, each school will collect from 40,000 to 50,000 VND/student/month to cover the additional costs for the number of teachers who have to sign contracts at the schools. The calculation will be based on the current teaching staff and the total number of classes.
Lack of consistency in implementation
Collecting fees from parents to cover costs due to teacher shortages is also being implemented by schools in Hung Nguyen district. However, during the implementation process, many principals are also having concerns.
Teacher Phan Xuan Loi - Principal of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School (Hung Nguyen) shared: According to the new program, students will of course study 2 sessions/day and the school must have enough teachers to teach. But in reality, the lack of teachers is quite common. For example, in our school, with a ratio of 1.27 teachers/class, teaching will not be guaranteed. The school's collection of additional money from 70,000 to 80,000 VND/month per student, if based on the guidance documents, may not be thorough. However, we are implementing it in the spirit of agreement between parents and the school to ensure enough teachers to teach 32 periods/week.
Across the province, the implementation of primary education in localities is different. This depends on the number of teachers available, on local support policies, or on the implementation method in each school.
In recent years, districts such as Dien Chau, Nam Dan, Nghi Loc have been among the leading localities in providing funding to support teacher contracts for schools. However, many localities and the education sector are still struggling on their own.
Meanwhile, collecting additional money from agreements with parents does not always receive approval. In Quynh Luu district, since the beginning of the school year, Mr. Tran Xuan Nhuong - Head of the district's Department of Education and Training has sent many documents to many related departments and agencies from the Central to the province to find solutions to support the serious shortage of teachers in the area.
Specifically, the current number of primary school teachers in Quynh Luu district as of October 2023 is 1,179 people. While the demand for arranging 2 sessions/day is 1,434 teachers. Of which, the team to arrange enough 1.5 teachers/class to teach grades 1, 2, 3, 4 is 1,167 people, and the number of teachers to teach grade 5 is 268 people. The number of teachers lacking to organize 2 sessions/day in Quynh Luu district is 174 people.
Due to the lack of teachers to teach classes, Quynh Luu district is temporarily instructing schools to teach classes according to the minimum number of periods as prescribed in the new program (from 25 to 30 periods/week, depending on each level). In addition, the district has also submitted a proposal for organizing teaching and learning for primary schools according to the 2018 General Education Program.
Our option 1 is to organize teaching of all subjects and compulsory educational activities, not to organize teaching 2 sessions/day. Option 2 is to continue organizing teaching 2 sessions/day and the district allocates budget to support teachers to teach more hours or contract teachers. The estimated compensation budget for the 2023-2024 school year is 8.6 billion VND (calculated according to the minimum wage). Option 3 is to organize teaching 2 sessions/day but parents support the cost of organizing extra-subject activities and compulsory educational activities.
Although the plan has been proposed, up to now, Quynh Luu district has not found an optimal solution. Meanwhile, mobilizing socialization and agreeing for parents to contribute money to pay teachers to teach extra hours or to sign contracts with teachers in the area is very difficult. The head of the district's Department of Education and Training also expressed concern and hoped that the most optimal solution would be option 2, because currently "While many other localities in the province are teaching 32 hours/week, if Quynh Luu students are only taught the minimum number of hours, not taught 2 sessions/day, they will be at a disadvantage".
In the current reality, if localities do not have enough teachers, if there is no unified plan to guide localities in the process of implementing the new program, the organization of teaching and learning at the primary level will continue to face difficulties. This situation is also happening in many other provinces and cities across the country. Recently, Ho Chi Minh City has repeatedly proposed to the National Assembly and the Government to have a policy of paying the income for teaching the second session for primary school teachers to ensure the rights of both teachers and students.
