The quality of teachers in many localities in Nghe An is lacking and weak.

Regarding this issue, Nghe An Newspaper has recorded some opinions of localities during the preparation process for implementation.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang - Chairman of Ky Son District People's Committee:

""The mountainous district is draining teachers' brains"

“Recently, there has been a strong tendency for excellent teachers at the provincial level in mountainous districts to move to the lowlands, and local authorities in mountainous districts have not yet found a thorough solution, because there are also causes stemming from personal wishes and family circumstances. Therefore, currently mountainous districts, including Ky Son district, are suffering from a “brain drain” and currently Ky Son no longer has excellent teachers at the provincial level.

At this time, only a few schools in Ky Son organize English teaching for students. Photo: Duc Anh

In education, only good teachers can improve the quality of education, but if teachers are not good, how can we improve the quality? This reality requires a policy for teachers when the new general education program is implemented. I hope that the province needs to have a policy to attract teachers from remote areas so that many good teachers can come to these places, avoiding the large gap between the highlands and the lowlands, especially a policy to attract good students to work in the mountainous areas for 3-5 years.

Currently, the budget is tightening public investment and spending. So, if education is also included in this "tightening", it will conflict with investing in equipment to access the new general education program. Should the education sector have a project to create a separate budget source for mountainous areas, not included in the general target?

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoang - Chairman of Ky Son District People's Committee. Photo: My Ha

For example, in Ky Son district in 2018, due to flooding, we asked to move two kindergartens and primary schools to higher ground, but we have been struggling for nearly a year without funding. In this situation, we are forced to take the district budget to do it first, before converting the land sale model to build schools, ensuring that students will not be flooded during the upcoming flood season."

Mr. Vo Sy Son - Vice Chairman of Quy Hop District People's Committee:

"The streamlining must be linked to reality and professional tasks"

“With the current comprehensive general education program, I am concerned about three points. First, although we have reformed education many times, in my opinion it has not been successful. Even this time, despite the strong direction, public opinion is still generally skeptical. Therefore, to do well, the first thing we need to pay attention to is to strengthen propaganda so that the entire political system and people can see the goals of the reform program. Specifically, what is the roadmap, where is the destination and how effective is it?

From the next school year, the replacement of textbooks according to the new general education program will be implemented for first graders. Photo: My Ha

In addition, I see that currently, in the two conditions to ensure the implementation of the General Education Program, which are the teaching staff and facilities, both the Education sector of the province have not met. For example, in terms of staffing, I see that between the Home Affairs sector and the Education sector, between requirements and reality, they are not being implemented in parallel. The Home Affairs sector requires a 10% reduction in staffing by 2021, while the Education sector has proposed a formula of 1 class x 1.5 teachers. This is not very good, because currently, the Government has required streamlining to be associated with the characteristics of the sector, especially education and health. For example, in Quy Hop district, currently the whole district has more than 400 classes but only 409 primary school teachers and by the end of 2019, more than 10 teachers will retire and in 2020, 35 more will retire.

Mr. Vo Sy Son - Vice Chairman of Quy Hop District People's Committee. Photo: My Ha

So, next school year, we will no longer have enough homeroom teachers and cannot arrange enough teachers for schools to organize 2 sessions/day.

Regarding educational facilities, the province requires the district level to mobilize all resources and integrate them into target programs, but currently the target program is decreasing. And besides this program, mountainous districts, such as Quy Hop, have no other source of income to invest in facilities.

Mr. Hoang Danh Truyen - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee:

"If each school chooses a set of books, it will be very difficult to implement."

“In Yen Thanh district, to implement the textbook replacement, we need to focus a lot on the team. However, this is having some shortcomings, even though we have mobilized 78 secondary school teachers to teach physical education and foreign languages ​​at the primary level.

Class time of students at Hop Thanh Primary School (Yen Thanh). Photo: My Ha

Specifically, the district has 811 teachers on the payroll, but there are up to 824 primary school classes, so the ratio is less than 1 teacher/class. The transfer of secondary school teachers is also very difficult because the district has to allocate funds for training on pedagogical methods, psychology, and professional skills. Meanwhile, the transfer period cannot be long and is only a temporary solution, because the teachers are all on duty, rotating teachers every 2 years.

During the implementation of the innovation program, we also wondered about the selection of textbooks. In our opinion, if there is no unified direction in selecting textbooks for grade 1, but each school chooses a set of books, it will be very difficult to implement. Because each set of books has its own curriculum structure. So, if each school chooses a set of books for grade 1 but in grade 2 they study the same set chosen by the province, will the content and curriculum be unified?

Mr. Hoang Danh Truyen - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee. Photo: My Ha

In the coming period, we also need to pay attention to the quality of teachers. As in our district, there is a lesson that cannot be solved, which is the recruitment of a number of foreign language teachers who are trained in-service, patchwork and now very difficult to overcome. It is expected that by the 2022-2023 school year, the textbook replacement will begin for 3rd graders and now we do not have an early plan, it will be very difficult to recruit quality foreign language teachers and if the recruitment is not guaranteed, the consequences will last from generation to generation. I am very worried, because currently, many districts do not have many students studying pedagogy, so the quality of foreign language teachers is very worrying".

Nghe An province currently has 547 primary education establishments (523 primary schools) with 1,006 school locations, including 459 separate locations, accounting for 16.3% of the country. This will make it difficult to invest in facilities and arrange teachers for specialized subjects such as Information Technology, Music, Fine Arts, and Physical Education.

Statistics show that the whole province has 10,121 primary school classes and to have the ratio of 1.5 teachers/class, 2,226 teachers need to be added. In the coming years, when the student population increases, by the 2022-2023 school year, to have enough teachers, 1,699 more teachers will be needed to ensure enough to teach 2 sessions/day.