Things that should not happen in an educational environment

(Baonghean) - In mid-December 2016, Nghe An Newspaper received a petition from Ms. Tran Thi Tien (residing in Ngoc Son commune, Do Luong district) requesting clarification on the fact that her daughter, Nguyen Thi Yen - a teacher at Lam Son Primary School, showed signs of being persecuted by the school's leadership. Upon verification, it was not as reported...

My business, mother stand alone

According to the application filed by Ms. Tran Thi Tien, her daughter, Nguyen Thi Yen (born in 1975), was recruited into the staff in 2006 as a teacher. However, her "dream of standing on the podium every day was not fully realized" because "Today she was teaching, tomorrow she quit this job and then transferred to another job. When she was in class, the principal and vice principal caused a lot of trouble, sometimes they sent people to get lesson plans, sometimes they checked the curriculum, sometimes they summoned parents to get signatures, students were disruptive and did not intervene; they used excuses to revoke her monthly salary..." On January 1, 2016, Yen was given a decision to raise her salary to level 4, coefficient 3.3, but the school did not allow her to receive it. When asked, she was told that she would receive the salary later. On December 7, 2016, she was suspended from work by the principal...

Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen exchanged information with reporters.

Contacting reporters, Mrs. Tran Thi Tien confirmed that because of her daughter's matter, she wrote a petition to the newspaper. To clarify the content her mother had mentioned, Nguyen Thi Yen presented her personal diplomas and certificates and stated that she graduated from the Pedagogical College in 1997 at Nghe An Pedagogical College. Also in this year, she was accepted to work under contract at Hoa Son Primary School. On April 20, 2000, the District Department of Education and Training transferred her to Giang Son 2 Primary School. From 2000 to 2002, Yen went through the following tasks: homeroom teacher; librarian and substitute teacher. In 2002, Yen was transferred to Lam Son Primary School.

According to Yen, after a while at Lam Son Primary School, the Board of Directors announced the policy of the industry to standardize teacher qualifications. Therefore, in 2003, Yen registered for a teacher training course at Hue University. By 2006, Yen was awarded a graduation certificate and was recruited into the staff (with a decision from the Department of Home Affairs).

At this time, the school informed all teachers that Yen's title was teacher, but instead of arranging a stable teaching job, she was constantly transferred to other jobs according to the school's needs. The job was unstable, only occasionally being able to teach classes, plus the fact that professional activities with teachers were not regular, made it difficult for Yen to practice her professional skills. By 2015, the school assigned Yen to teach Physical Education. And on December 12, 2016, there was a decision to suspend her teaching because it was considered that Yen "did not meet the professional standards"...

Inaccurate reflection

When coming to Lam Son Primary School to ask about Nguyen Thi Yen, many teachers expressed their desire to exchange information. From their perspective, the reason was that Yen had not met the job requirements. They also said that many delegations, from district to provincial level, had come to inspect and verify.

Through the archives at Lam Son Primary School, it shows that from 2006 until now, most of Nguyen Thi Yen's duties have been as a janitor (there are two years when her classification is as a teacher); and, she has been rated as average or weak.

The November 2016 salary statement proves that Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen received a salary with a coefficient of 3.3.

Continuously in 2014 and 2015, in response to Ms. Tran Thi Tien's complaint, the People's Committee of Do Luong district and the Department of Education and Training conducted verification and inspection to report to the Department of Education and Training and the Provincial People's Committee, and at the same time, responded to citizens. Thereby, it was determined that Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen was contracted by the District People's Committee in 1997; from 1997 to 1999, she worked under a contract at Hoa Son Primary School as a librarian and taught some lessons; from 1999 to 2001, she worked under a contract at Giang Son 2 Primary School with the tasks of library, service and taught some lessons; from October 2002, she was transferred to work at Lam Son Primary School according to Decision No. 872 of the People's Committee of Do Luong district; from January 10, 2006, she was recruited into the payroll according to Decision No. 1226 of the Department of Home Affairs. A comprehensive review of the annual evaluation at Lam Son Primary School showed that in 2002-2003, Nguyen Thi Yen was assigned to be a teacher but was classified as weak. From 2004 to 2014-2015, she was assigned to be a service teacher but was classified as weak to average; in 2012-2013, she did not complete her assignment.

In 2014, the Department of Education and Training of Do Luong and the school organized for Nguyen Thi Yen to teach 3 lessons of Math (grade 5), Reading and Ethics (grade 3) to assess her ability. Thereby, Yen's strengths were assessed as being fully prepared, calm in class, clear and expressive speech. However, the knowledge transfer was not accurate, the summary of the questions was wrong, the calculation examples were wrong... (for Math); the order was not correct, the understanding of difficult words was still messy, not closely following the knowledge standards... (for Reading); the teaching steps were still messy, through the lesson students could not draw out the content to remember... (for Ethics). The results were classified as poor for Math and Ethics; average for Reading.

In 2015, the People's Committee of Do Luong district directed to continue to test and evaluate Nguyen Thi Yen's capacity (in Official Dispatch 289 dated April 6, 2015). From May to October 2015, Lam Son Primary School gave Yen time off to review (2 sessions per week), provided materials, observed teachers in the school, and taught some lessons (with the help of some teachers).

On October 28, 2015, Nguyen Thi Yen was assigned by the school to teach 3 lessons of Math for grade 2, Reading for grade 3, and Handicraft for the school's jury to evaluate. Thanks to the help of teachers in the preparation, Yen's teaching results were evaluated by the jury as average for all 3 lessons. Then, from November 9, the school assigned her to teach 2 classes for grade 2 with the subjects of Handicraft, Ethics, Life Skills, Group Activities, Math review and Vietnamese. However, after 3 weeks, Yen could not perform her teaching duties (did not prepare lessons according to the schedule; taught the wrong schedule, was late to teach...). Because Yen's teaching quality was not guaranteed, many parents reacted...

The list of people receiving back pay increases includes the name Nguyen Thi Yen.

On January 9, 2016, the Department of Education and Training of Do Luong held an extended meeting (with Ms. Tran Thi Tien and Nguyen Thi Yen in attendance) to evaluate the implementation of the direction of the District People's Committee in Official Dispatch 289. Many opinions from the participating parties affirmed that Nguyen Thi Yen's capacity was not enough to teach in class, and requested to arrange other work.

In May 2016, the People's Committee of Do Luong district continued to direct Lam Son Primary School to create conditions for Nguyen Thi Yen to strive, and at the same time continue to evaluate her professional capacity. In the 2016-2017 school year, Yen was assigned by the school to teach Physical Education. However, Yen still could not handle it; the school's parents continued to have opinions because "teaching to improve students' physical fitness is very important, and teachers need to ensure it". Therefore, on December 12, 2016, the school suspended Yen's teaching (until December 31, 2016) so that she could improve her professional skills and study the regulations of the Education sector regarding professional standards and ethics...

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Thuan - Principal of Lam Son Primary School: "In the case of Ms. Nguyen Thi Yen, the school and all levels of the industry have paid special attention to help her fulfill her wish to teach. However, Yen's capacity is not guaranteed. Therefore, the school is implementing the provisions of the Law on Civil Servants and the regulations of the industry, continuously monitoring and evaluating Ms. Yen's work for 2 years, then reporting to the competent authority for appropriate handling...".

Checking the content of the petition about not receiving the new salary, through the records of the school accountant and treasurer, it shows that this reflection is not accurate. It was not until August 2016 that Lam Son Primary School received the list of civil servants and public employees who received salary increases (6 people) from the People's Committee of Do Luong district. And from September 2016, Nguyen Thi Yen received the new salary level 4, coefficient 3.3. At the same time, she also received back pay from January to August 2016 (the school implemented the back pay policy from August 23, 2016) with an amount of over 4.2 million VND.

In Lam Son commune, we learned that the voters here are also hoping that the superiors will arrange a suitable job for Nguyen Thi Yen, not letting her continue teaching. Therefore, in preparation for the upcoming commune People's Council meeting, the Lam Son Commune People's Committee requested Lam Son Primary School to clarify and respond in writing so that the commune can explain to the voters.

Ha Giang