Proposal to add 27,850 preschool and primary school teachers

Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh said that in order to prepare for the explanation session, the Committee has recently organized survey and monitoring activities; organized working sessions with relevant ministries and branches; organized field surveys in two forms, in person and online, in 9 provinces and cities representing regions and areas across the country; organized expert consultation seminars on the above issues. The survey results have been compiled into a report sent to Committee members and relevant agencies as a basis for determining the issues that need to be raised in this explanation session.

Regarding the issue of teacher staffing, the survey report of the Committee on Culture and Education said that there is a shortage of a large number of teachers as well as a local surplus or shortage in each locality, each educational institution, each level of education, each subject, especially the new subjects implemented under the 2018 General Education Program (Foreign Languages, Information Technology, etc.).

Solving this problem is facing many difficulties such as the Party's viewpoint on the requirement to streamline the payroll (Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW, Resolution No. 18-NQ/TW, Resolution 19-NQ/TW, Resolution No. 08/NQ-CP, Resolution No. 89/NQ-CP, Directive No. 02/CT-TTg) while the wishes and needs of the education sector and localities are all proposed to increase (due to the addition of new subjects according to the 2018 General Education Program; due to studying 2 sessions/day; due to mechanical population increase and migration in some localities...).

Regarding the implementation of policies for teachers, the problem is that the mechanisms and policies still have many shortcomings; the implementation is not unified, synchronous, and effective; the work of mobilizing and rotating teachers is not strictly implemented; the policy of the highest teacher salary in the salary scale system has not been implemented for many years; policies for non-staff teachers, non-public teachers...

The Committee proposed clarifying the mechanism for attracting talented people to take exams for the teaching profession and for teacher recruitment; rotation policy for teachers working in difficult areas; teachers from the lowlands to work in the mountainous areas (backlog, lasting for many years); policies for non-staff teachers (social insurance), and non-public teachers.

Regarding labor contracts for teachers, there needs to be a satisfactory solution to the regime and policies for contract teachers so that they can work with peace of mind.

Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra reports at the explanation session. Photo: VGP

Reporting at the meeting, leaders of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Training said they had worked and agreed to submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and addition of 27,850 preschool and general education teacher positions in the 2021-2022 school year.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said that up to now, the number of preschool and primary school teachers is both 10,178 in excess and 94,714 in shortage.

"The education sector still has a situation of local surplus and shortage in some subjects, school levels and some localities. For example, in the same locality, there is a surplus of teachers for subjects such as Literature and Math, but a shortage of teachers for specific subjects such as Information Technology, English, and Art...", Mr. Do said.

The reason for the shortage of teachers is that the arrangement, mobilization and assignment are not close to the actual needs. Many localities do not have unified direction; there is an annual increase in population size according to the natural growth rate. Most localities do not assign additional teacher staff while still having to implement a 10% staff reduction in the context of increasing student population...

Through reviewing and synthesizing data on surplus and shortage of teachers, the Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister of Education and Training worked together and agreed to advise the Prime Minister to consider supplementing the missing teacher staff for the education sector; agreed that the Ministry of Home Affairs report and submit to the Prime Minister to consider and supplement 27,850 preschool and general education teacher staff for the 2021-2022 school year.

Also at the explanation session, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that in the 2015 - 2021 period, the number of people working in public service units decreased by 236,366 people, equivalent to 11.67%.

Of which, central ministries and branches reduced 40,221 people, equivalent to 25.19%; localities reduced 196,145 people, equivalent to 10.51%. The above reductions include the number of people working in public preschool and general education establishments.

According to Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra, the staffing needs in public preschool and general education institutions are calculated according to the prescribed norms, in the 2021-2022 school year, in 63 localities, the need for additional teachers is 65,980. Of which, preschool level has 38,925 teachers, primary level has 23,550 teachers, secondary level has 1,261 teachers and high school level has 2,244 teachers.

To overcome the above situation, the Minister of Home Affairs also said that in the immediate future, he will propose to supplement 27,850 positions for preschool and primary school teachers. In addition, he will also consider and supplement salary and allowance policies, especially preferential allowances for teachers at all levels.