Policy on merging centers at district level: Still have concerns!

(Baonghean) - On March 19, 2015, the Government Office issued Official Dispatch No. 1893/VPCP-KGVX on guidelines for merging centers at the district level. Accordingly, 3 district-level centers will be merged: Vocational Training Center, Continuing Education Center, and General Technical - Career Guidance Center into Vocational Education Center. Before the merger policy, continuing education centers in the province are extremely concerned and worried.

Struggling to function

In the 2015-2016 school year, the Quynh Luu District Continuing Education Center recruited 3 classes for grade 10. This can be considered a success because the entire Quynh Luu District currently has 9 high schools, including 3 private schools, most of which do not meet the enrollment quota. The center currently has 11 classes, but the teaching staff only meets half of the requirements, forcing the center to sign contracts with 7 guest teachers. This causes many difficulties for the center: Firstly, most of the tuition fees are used to pay teachers' salaries, which affects other activities; signing contracts with teachers by class makes it difficult to improve the quality of teaching and learning... Mr. Ho Phuc Hieu, Director of the Quynh Luu District Continuing Education Center, shared: The reason why Continuing Education Centers have difficulty recruiting students is because the population size has decreased but the number of high schools in the area has increased (doubled compared to 10 years ago). Furthermore, in the minds of many parents, most students still have a feeling of apprehension and inferiority complex because they think that this is a supplementary system, only for those who drop out of school, go back to school or for those who both study general education and vocational training, so few people register to study...

A class of students at Vinh City Continuing Education Center.

As for Vinh City Continuing Education Center, this school year, it only recruited 4 10th grade classes. And to have that number of students, the school had to accept indirect recruitment through Vinh Vocational College with the form of coordinating both cultural and vocational training. To "manage" itself, in the past time, Vinh City Continuing Education Center had to diversify its activities such as coordinating with secondary schools to teach vocational students who are in the stream; coordinating with schools and IT and Foreign Language centers to open IT and foreign language classes for primary, secondary and basic IT students; coordinating with high schools and secondary schools to teach general vocational training; coordinating with the Department of Education and Training, Community Learning Centers of wards and communes to teach specialized subjects... Although it is considered an effective and flexible center, the center is facing many difficulties due to a lack of teachers.

The center has 31 classes (including 11 general education classes and 20 vocational training classes) but there are only 6 official teachers. Apart from the 2 subjects that have teachers, Math and History, the center has to hire part-time teachers for all other subjects, about 20 people. The school's teachers have to study for a second degree (vocational training degree) to meet the requirements of both general education and vocational training and accept to teach more periods (according to regulations, an average teacher must teach 17 periods/week, but the center's teachers must teach up to 34 periods/week), teaching during the summer to meet the requirements of the task.

Currently, apart from the newly established Hoang Mai Town, 19/19 remaining districts, cities and towns have Continuing Education Centers and most of them are operating with great difficulty. The most stable enrollment areas such as Do Luong, Dien Chau... can only enroll 5-6 classes each year, the rest only have 1-2 classes. There are even centers such as Quy Chau and Con Cuong Continuing Education Centers, which can only enroll a few students each year. The shortage of teachers is a reality that is happening at Continuing Education Centers today. According to statistics, centers in the province are lacking at least 25 teachers and no center has enough teachers to teach cultural subjects according to regulations. Most centers are having to contract guest teachers to ensure enough teachers to teach in class. Many centers organize vocational training but lack teachers, which affects the quality of teaching and learning as well as the regular activities of the school.

Concerns about the merger policy

On March 19, 2015, the Government Office issued Official Dispatch No. 1893/VPCP-KGVX on guidelines for merging centers at the district level. Accordingly, 3 district-level centers will be merged, namely Vocational Training Center, Continuing Education Center, and General Technical - Career Guidance Center. The new center will be called Vocational Education Center.

In Nghe An, there are currently about 12 localities with 2-3 centers including: Continuing Education Center, vocational training center, career guidance center operating together. Receiving the information of the merger, each center has different concerns. Teacher Ho Phuc Hieu, Director of the Continuing Education Center of Quynh Luu district shared: The merger has positive aspects: the facilities of the centers will be more complete and spacious. However, the operating structure, which unit is under which unit, must be clearly defined. For a long time, continuing education centers have been managed by the Department of Education and Training, vocational training centers are under the district or the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs... If merged into one, there needs to be a managing unit. If the management agency is transferred to the district People's Committee, it is also unreasonable, because the district can take charge of the activities and competition, but in terms of expertise, it certainly cannot be guaranteed.

Mr. Phan Lam Giang, Director of the Dien Chau District Continuing Education Center, commented: Currently, the district's continuing education centers are managed by the Department of Education and Training and vocational training is still being carried out effectively. After the merger, it should also be managed by the Department of Education.

Mr. Le Huy Phi, Head of the Continuing Education Department, Department of Education and Training, said: The merger between continuing education centers and vocational training centers is in line with practical requirements; helps to streamline the administrative apparatus, save a part of the State budget and overcome overlapping training functions, creating favorable conditions for those who want to study and enrollment. However, the current difficulty is how to merge to ensure the operation of the centers, ensure the restructuring of the staff in a reasonable way and who will manage the new centers (Department of Education and Training or Department of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs or under the management of the People's Committee at the district (city, town) level) - there is no guiding document yet.

Ms. Ho Thi Chau Loan, Deputy Director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, affirmed that the merger of vocational training centers and continuing education centers is a practical model, aiming to meet the needs of people for regular learning, ensuring the enhancement of education and vocational training capacity in localities. The Department has also sought opinions from relevant departments and conducted a field survey in Nghe An. Learning from the experience of other localities, we should only carry out the merger after having inter-sectoral guidance to ensure rationality and effectiveness.

While waiting for the authorities to guide the merger, the continuing education centers need to innovate their operations and teaching methods to suit the target audience; strengthen propaganda and career guidance so that parents and students have a clear and complete understanding of the continuing education level. In addition, consolidate the operating model of district-level continuing education centers and community learning centers in the direction of one facility performing many tasks; expand cultural teaching combined with vocational training to contribute to the streamlining of students after junior high school; innovate management work, strengthen order and discipline, improve operational efficiency; invest in building facilities and teaching equipment to meet the increasing needs of learners...

Article and photos:Song Hoang