More than 200,000 primary school students in Nghe An have had their classes cut due to a lack of teachers.

Le Loi Primary School (Vinh City) has nearly 2,000 students and is one of the schools with the largest number of students in the province. This school year, the number of first graders at the school has increased dramatically with 14 classes, so although more teachers have been added, the teacher shortage is still serious.

Currently, the school has to contract 7 more teachers even though the number of lessons this school year has been reduced from 35 to 33. Meanwhile, the school does not know where to turn for the money to pay teachers when up to this point, the Department of Education and Training has not yet issued instructions on collecting additional fees for the second lesson like in previous school years.

Teachers and students of Tan Ky Town Primary School. Photo: My Ha

Previously, since the 1995-1996 school year, some schools in Nghe An province had organized 2 sessions/day. Later, 2 sessions/day was one of the important criteria for recognition of national standard schools.By the 2017-2018 school year, 98.8% of primary school students in the province were taught and studied 2 sessions/day at 2 levels: 35 periods/week for favorable areas, 30 periods/week for difficult areas. The rate of national standard schools in primary schools has reached 85.6%. Meanwhile, the national rate is only about 70%.

Regarding teaching 2 sessions/day, on April 20, 2015, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision 1517/QD-UBND dated April 20, 2015 to guide the implementation. The organization of teaching 2 sessions/day is directed by the Department of Education and Training according to the principle: Voluntary participation in learning and contributing funds, self-agreement on the level of contribution to ensure sufficient revenue to cover expenses (Guidelines for revenue and expenditure from the school years 2015-2016 to 2017-2018).

According to statistics, in previous school years, the number of students studying 2 sessions/day by social contribution was about 224,559 students/249,150 students. The total budget mobilized from parents' contributions was 134.8 billion VND. The collected budget ensures payment of the minimum wage for teachers teaching extra classes, contract teachers teaching Foreign Languages, Information Technology under the favorable conditions of primary school teacher staffing in the province, which has only been arranged by the Provincial People's Committee at the level of 1.25 teachers/class (teaching staffing 1 session/day). In difficult and mountainous areas, the Provincial People's Committee has a policy of arranging enough teachers to organize teaching 2 sessions/day.

This school year, students at Don Phuc Primary School (Con Cuong) only have 26 lessons. Photo: My Ha

However, in this school year, mobilizing funds for implementing 2-session teaching/day is facing many difficulties because up to now, the Provincial People's Committee has directed to temporarily suspend the implementation of Decision 1517 and the province has not issued replacement instructions. Therefore, although the new school year has started for more than 1 month, schools have not been able to implement the 2nd session teaching and schools are starting to fall into a situation of owing teachers' salaries. In some districts, dozens of contract teachers are forced to stop teaching because they do not have salaries to pay. According to statistics, the entire province is lacking more than 2,000 teachers at the primary level.

This situation forces schools to cut down on the number of lessons, even though this is a mandatory criterion in standard schools. For example, at Don Phuc Primary School (Con Cuong), this year the school only teaches 26 lessons out of 30 lessons according to regulations (for highland areas). Therefore, in previous years the school maintained 4/5 lessons, 2 lessons/day, but this year there are only 2/5 lessons. It is worth mentioning that this is a national standard school. This situation also occurs in other highland districts.

In the whole province, in previous years, the Education Department stipulated 35 periods/week for favorable areas, 30 periods/week for difficult areas. But this year, the Department of Guidance reduced it by 2-3 periods/week. Due to the reduction in the number of periods, schools were forced to cut down on extracurricular activities; self-study instruction... Students also had to study harder because schools had to prioritize cultural lessons.

Physical education class of students at Le Loi Primary School (Vinh City). Photo: My Ha

This situation, if prolonged, will likely affect the quality of primary education this school year. Not to mention, hundreds of standard schools will be at risk of "losing standards" because they cannot ensure the required number of hours. Recently, the education and training sector has also developed two drafts to replace Decision 1517 but they have not been approved. On the school side, the biggest wish is to arrange enough teachers. Or, soon have instructions on collecting teaching 2 sessions/day.

Furthermore, the province needs to allocate enough budget or have a policy to partially support schools to pay teachers' salaries like Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh and some other provinces nationwide to ensure students' rights.