Teaching 2 sessions/day: Not yet out of the question
(Baonghean) - There are less than 2 months left until the end of the 2018-2019 school year, but up to this point, the implementation of teaching 2 sessions/day in primary schools in the province is still confusing. Meanwhile, the solutions just proposed, if implemented immediately, will still take a lot of time.
Deploy and worry at the same time
Although it is one of the mountainous districts that still faces many difficulties, in this school year, Nghia Dan district still advocates organizing 2 sessions/day, in the situation of "using what is available", based on the actual arrangement of teachers. For example, at Nghia Khanh Primary School, due to the needs of parents, although there are not enough teachers and no funds to pay, the school still boldly hires guest teachers to organize teaching for students.
The school has been implementing the two-session teaching program for many years now, so it is impossible to say "abandon" it now. Therefore, despite many difficulties, we still try to implement it, under the condition of allocating only 1-2 teachers/class (the regulation is 1.5 teachers/class). The only thing is that currently, the school does not have the funds to pay teachers' salaries... Currently, the school has 22 teachers, each teacher, we owe 168 extra teaching periods, the cost is up to hundreds of millions of VND".
At Nghia Hong Primary School, due to concerns about not having enough salary to pay teachers, the school was forced to cut one guest English teacher. The remaining teacher, due to overwork, forced the school to reduce the number of lessons from 4 to 3, which meant that the students' curriculum was cut and part of the lecture content was shortened. |
| Vietnamese class of students at Na Ngoi Primary School (Ky Son). Photo: My Ha |
Due to the needs of parents and students, we still encourage primary schools to organize 2 sessions/day for students. However, up to this point, no school has organized to collect fees... The implementation is also uneven.
Talking about the current conditions in Nghia Dan district, teacher Nguyen Thi Thuy - Head of primary school, Department of Education and Training of the district said: Nghia Dan is a special district, many communes are located in particularly difficult areas. However, due to the needs of parents and students, we still encourage primary schools to organize 2 sessions/day for students.
However, up to this point, no school has collected money... The implementation is also uneven. For example, in favorable schools (those eligible for payment), schools still arrange to teach 30-33 periods/week. But in schools in disadvantaged communes (those not eligible for payment) such as Nghia Tho, Nghia Loi, Nghia Thinh communes, schools can only organize to teach about 27-28 periods/week for students.
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| Team activities at Dien Tho Primary School (Dien Chau). Photo: Canh Yen |
At the end of December 2018, the Provincial People's Committee issued Document No. 9355/UBND-VX on organizing 2 sessions/day at Primary Education institutions from the 2018-2019 school year. However, after 3 months of implementation, the implementation is still difficult to implement, due to the lack of detailed guidance documents. In fact, only a few localities such as Vinh city and Thai Hoa town have allowed schools to temporarily collect to pay a part of the "owed" salary to teachers. However, this is only temporary and does not reflect the current difficulties in schools.
For example, at Ha Huy Tap 1 Primary School (Vinh City), when the city instructed, the school temporarily collected 2 months of 200,000 VND/student. However, with 1,200 students and dozens of teachers having to work overtime for the past 6 months, this amount is just a drop in the ocean.
“Currently, the number of hours that teachers teach in two shifts is more than 1,000. If we calculate roughly, the school owes the teachers 420 million VND. But we are “delaying” and owing the teachers.”
Due to the lack of specific guidance, recently some schools have relied on the provincial document to collect tuition for 2 sessions/day without agreement or calculation according to the actual needs of the school, causing frustration for parents. A typical example is Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School (Hung Nguyen town), the school leaders directed to collect tuition for 2 sessions/day for 9 months of the 2018-2019 school year. Meanwhile, according to the guidance of the Provincial People's Committee, this school year, the collection of tuition for 2 sessions/day will only be implemented from December 10, 2018.
"Difficult" school is still "difficult"After many months of "deadlock", on March 26, 2018, the inter-sectoral guidance document between the Department of Education and Training, the Department of Finance, and the Department of Home Affairs on the Guidelines for organizing 2-session teaching/day at educational institutions from the 2018-2019 school year was officially issued. With this document, for the first time, the province has detailed instructions on the revenue and expenditure of 2-session teaching/day and this is the basis for schools to calculate and implement. However, at the time when the 2018-2019 school year is nearing its end, many teachers believe that implementing and mobilizing parents this year is difficult, especially in areas where people still face many difficulties.
Also according to the guidance document, a good thing is that the province will not collect fees for teaching 2 sessions/day for primary education institutions in communes, villages with special difficulties, communes with special difficulties in coastal areas and islands. To implement, the District People's Committee will base on the actual situation to direct and balance resources for educational institutions to ensure the organization of teaching 2 sessions/day, without mobilizing contributions from parents.
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| Organizing two-session teaching a day is an opportunity for schools to organize life skills activities. Photo: My Ha |
In fact, this content is not “new” because it has been applied by our province many years before, specifically according to Decision No. 517/QD.UBND.VX dated April 20, 2015 of the Provincial People's Committee. However, in the current situation, this is difficult to implement, whenever the problem of primary school teacher shortage has not been thoroughly resolved.
For a long time, Quy Hop district has been classified as a highland area with 14/21 communes being particularly difficult. However, currently, in our district, the teacher ratio is only about 1 or 2 teachers/class. Under these conditions, this year our district will not implement teaching 2 sessions/day. And, next year, if the province does not add teachers, it will be difficult for disadvantaged schools to implement according to the instructions.
The same situation also occurs in Con Cuong district, a district where 2/3 of the communes are priority and special communes. Right now, the district is still "trying" to teach 2 sessions/day but the quality is difficult to ensure because the schools only teach according to the "actual number of teachers". Therefore, this year, schools can only teach 27 - 28 periods/week (while if ensuring the correct and sufficient number, it would need 30 - 33 periods).
The leaders of the two education departments of Con Cuong and Quy Hop also said that in the guidelines, if there is a shortage of teachers, the districts can transfer teachers from junior high school to teach primary school (after training). But in these districts, there is no surplus of junior high school teachers. Or, if the solution is to prioritize the arrangement of teachers from favorable areas to disadvantaged areas, it is also difficult to do. Because of that, it will put pressure on schools in favorable areas (teachers have to work too many extra hours, the tuition fee for 2 sessions/day is too high because they have to pay for contract teachers and guest lecturers).
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| Many classrooms in Vinh city are overloaded compared to regulations. Photo: MH |
