Emphasize the role and responsibilities of school principals.

Strengthening discipline in the school environment is a goal set by the Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, Nguyen Dac Vinh, for the province's education sector. Photo: Quoc Son

The issue of surplus teachers was raised by the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, which requested the Provincial People's Committee and the Education Department to find solutions starting from the 2017-2018 school year. However, on the eve of the new school year, this issue is being revisited and discussed again, and skepticism is directed towards the heads of schools.

In the 2017-2018 school year, to address the surplus of teachers, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training proposed a solution: assigning the "surplus" teachers to teach at the primary and preschool levels. In a certain sense, secondary school teachers would have a higher level of expertise than primary school teachers, and primary school teachers would be more qualified than preschool teachers.

In reality, that's not the case. Each educational level has its own unique characteristics, specialization, age group, and student psychology, which is why different teacher training programs are formed. Assigning surplus teachers to levels outside their training specialization is simply a last resort when it's impossible to remove them from the system due to legal issues such as the Labor Law and the Education Law.

Regarding the direct causes of the surplus, according to information from the Nghe An Department of Education, by the end of the 2017-2018 school year, the number of surplus teachers who were hired through contracts signed by the districts themselves was over 500, accounting for approximately 50% of the total current surplus teachers. However, this is the figure recorded in official documents...

During a meeting with the Standing Committee of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee on July 31st, the Director of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, stated that it is very difficult to manage, control, and prevent school principals from arbitrarily contracting with teachers. The head of the provincial education sector also requested that the Provincial People's Committee take strong measures to address this issue.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Kim Chi, Director of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, has requested provincial leaders to take action against school principals who have arbitrarily hired contract teachers. (Photo: Quoc Son)

Two realities exist here. Firstly, schools have long faced a shortage of teachers, especially for non-core subjects such as music, art, and foreign languages. Without established staffing quotas, school principals have had to hire teachers on a contract basis to ensure quality education. This also means that the school budget has to be divided into many parts, reducing the average income of staff and teachers. This is also a challenge for school principals.

Secondly, school principals are hiring contract teachers not for the purpose of ensuring sufficient class hours, subjects, and educational quality for students; this is a matter that is raising questions from the public. Regardless of the justification, the surplus of teachers is a reality, and the principals are the ones directly responsible.

But that's not all; from the perspective of school security, Colonel Nguyen Huu Cau, Director of the Nghe An Provincial Police, believes that school leaders have been causing instability in public order and security through additional fees, extra classes, and tutoring. Of course, the leadership and management of the provincial Department of Education and Training also play a role here.

Explaining his opinion, the Director of the Nghe An Provincial Police affirmed that in 2017, the province experienced several hotspots caused by parents protesting against extra tutoring and additional fees charged by schools. Furthermore, the practice of "using" the guise of socialized funding to collect excessive fees contrary to regulations in schools has remained unchanged despite strong public outcry for many years. Could there be a systemic tacit agreement within the Education sector, with school principals being the most obvious link in this chain?

Teachers and students of Tri Le 4 Primary School (Que Phong) participate in the weekly flag-raising ceremony. (Illustrative photo)

Rectifying the conduct of school principals and vice-principals was a key issue raised by Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh at a meeting between the Provincial Party Standing Committee and the leaders of the Provincial Department of Education and Training. The head of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee demanded that ethical standards be supplemented and tightened when appointing, assigning, and placing principals and vice-principals in schools. This doesn't mean that principals and vice-principals lack ethics; rather, there are actually ethical issues. These include a lack of adherence to principles and regulations in carrying out assigned tasks, and issues of discipline and violations in management and administration.

Strengthening and tightening ethical standards means ensuring that school principals do not act arbitrarily but operate within the permitted framework and scope, while adhering to the law and regulations of the education sector and higher authorities. In reality, there have long been instances where principals and vice-principals who violate regulations have not been severely punished, but merely transferred from one school to another or from one locality to another. There seems to be a loophole allowing school principals to "break the rules" for personal gain. This is a major concern.

Before the start of the 2018-2019 school year, Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh requested the Provincial People's Committee and the Education Department to convene a meeting with the participation of all chairmen of district People's Committees and principals and vice-principals of schools in the province. The purpose is to tighten discipline in the educational environment and also as a "remedy" for those in leadership positions within Nghe An's school system. If organized, this would be the first time a conference aimed at improving ethical values ​​has been held specifically for school principals and vice-principals.