Thousands of contract teachers in Nghe An are on the payroll.

Entered service at age 45

For many days now, the teacher's phone has been ringing.Nguyen Duy Trinh(45 years old, Hau Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district), continuously received congratulatory messages from colleagues and generations of students. After 20 years of hard work, the male physical education teacher of Hung Thanh Primary School finally received a decision to be appointed to the staff when his hair was already turning gray.

Teacher Trinh is one of 372 contract teachers in Yen Thanh district who were accepted into the staff right before the new school year started. “I am really happy. I don’t know what else to say,” Mr. Trinh emotionally said on the day he received the decision.

In 2004, after graduating from Da Nang College of Physical Education and Sports, Mr. Trinh returned to his hometown and applied for a contract teaching position at Hung Thanh Primary School with a salary of 200,000 VND/month. His father was a war invalid, his mother was often sick, the family's life depended mainly on 5 sao of rice fields and his father's allowance, the whole family had high hopes for their son, Mr. Trinh, to have a proper education and a stable job.

But since Mr. Trinh started working, life has not improved much as the monthly contract salary is too low, and for many years he has not been on the payroll. After getting married and having two children, Mr. Trinh and his wife have had to work even harder. His wife is a kindergarten teacher, and is in poor health, so she cannot do any extra work. Meanwhile, his salary over the past 20 years has increased to 290,000 VND, then 340,000 VND and now about 2.6 million VND per month, not including insurance.

During nearly 20 years of teaching, Mr. Trinh has been honored to receive many Certificates of Merit from the Ministry of Education and Training, the Department of Education and Training, and the Chairman of the District People's Committee... He was also a famous figure in the press 3 years ago, when he risked his life to save a drowning male student, and was later awarded Certificates of Merit by many units. To support his family, for many years now, this male teacher has had to work as a "handyman". That is, he does whatever he can find, and does whatever he is hired to do. On days when he has no classes, Mr. Trinh asks to work as a bricklayer, sometimes repairing electricity. During the summer, he also opens swimming classes for children in the village to earn extra income.

Similar to teacher Trinh, teacher Phan Tat Tuan (42 years old) could not hide his emotions when he was accepted into the staff after a long time of striving. Teacher Tuan has a talent for physical education and sports. Although he is small in stature, he is good at many sports such as soccer and volleyball. Passionate about teaching, Phan Tat Tuan chose to study at the College of Education, Faculty of Physical Education. In 2004, after graduating, Yen Thanh district signed a contract with him to teach physical education at Quang Thanh Primary School.

After 20 years of teaching, Mr. Tuan's salary is only 1.9 million VND per month. His wife works as a staff at the commune health station, and her salary is less than 5 million VND/month. Therefore, although they have been married for a long time, Mr. Tuan and his wife have not been able to build a house to live on their own. They still have to live in the cramped house of their parents. Because the salary is too low, Mr. Tuan has often thought about doing other jobs to earn money to help him pursue his dream of becoming a public servant. However, in this poor rural area, finding a part-time job is not easy. Therefore, the whole family has to rely on the rice fields.

“I have only been on the payroll for a few days and have not received my first month’s salary yet, so I don’t know how my income will be calculated. I am also very excited, hoping to improve my income,” Mr. Tuan shared.

More than 2,000 contract teachers are on the payroll.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Tran Xuan Tinh - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Yen Thanh district said that this time the whole district has 372 contract teachers on the payroll, including many contract teachers of over 20 years like Mr. Trinh and Mr. Tuan. "When we received the decision, everyone was excited. We were also happy for them, very deserving!", Mr. Tinh said.

According to Mr. Tinh, of these 372 people, more than 200 are preschool teachers under contract type 06 and 09. "Currently, in Yen Thanh district, there is only one person who is a contract teacher under this type who has not been considered for the establishment because their qualifications do not meet the requirements. However, this establishment position is still reserved, giving them time to take additional courses and then be considered for admission later with the view that all contract teachers of this type must be included in the establishment," Mr. Tinh said, adding that in the district, there are not many contract teachers left, mainly teachers who have signed contracts with the school and paid insurance from 2015 to now.

Meanwhile, according to the report of the Department of Home Affairs, from July 11, 2023 to August 30, 2023, the district-level Education sector recruited 1,540 people into the payroll. In the period from October 2022 to July 11, 2023, this number was 812 people. August 30, 2023 is the deadline that the Provincial People's Committee has directed and required districts, cities and towns to complete the recruitment. However, after this deadline, there are still 4 localities conducting the recruitment process with 383 targets.

Specifically, Vinh city has approved the admission results and is completing personal records to issue recruitment decisions for 183 people, Ky Son district 77 people, Tan Ky district 119 people. Meanwhile, Tuong Duong district has only approved the list of candidates eligible for the second round and is preparing for the second round of admission for 4 positions.

In the past 2 months, in addition to Yen Thanh district recruiting a large number of contract teachers, Quynh Luu district recruited 278 people; Do Luong 174 people; Nghi Loc 152 people; Anh Son 104 people; Thanh Chuong 101 people; Hung Nguyen 85 people; Hoang Mai town 76 people; Quy Hop 67 people; Dien Chau 45 people; Que Phong 45 people; Vinh city 28 people and Quy Chau district 13 people.

According to the report from the Department of Home Affairs, for contract preschool teachers in categories 06 and 09, the recruitment has been completed. However, there are still 29 cases that have not been put on the payroll because the individuals only have intermediate preschool teacher training qualifications. "For these cases, the 29 quotas will still be retained and the recruitment process will be carried out when they have college degrees in preschool teacher training or higher," said a representative of the Department of Home Affairs.

In addition, in the recent recruitment, there were 56 staffing quotas announced by the People's Committees of Ky Son, Que Phong, Quy Chau districts... on mass media but there were not enough application documents. Thus, up to now, Nghe An Education sector has recruited 2,352 civil servants, is in the process of recruiting 383 quotas, there are 29 quotas for 06 and 09 contract preschool teachers waiting for additional qualifications and 56 quotas do not have enough application documents.

LikeNghe An Newspaper has reportedIn October 2022, the Provincial People's Committee approved the Department of Education and Training and the People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to recruit 3,013 people (including from preschool to high school). The guiding documents of the departments stipulate that localities must complete the recruitment before January 30, 2023. However, by early July 2023, units and localities had only recruited 812 people.

On July 11, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued an official dispatch, requesting the District People's Committee to complete the recruitment of teachers before August 30, 2023 to prepare teachers for the new school year.