Difficult to implement synchronous teaching of 2 sessions/day in primary schools due to lack of teachers
(Baonghean.vn) - The new General Education Program for primary school is designed to have 32 periods/week or more for all grades. However, in the current context, implementation is still facing many difficulties, especially in localities lacking teachers.
Increase savings but difficult to increase allowances
The road to school of teacher Lo Van Khay - a teacher who is working at Xop Kho school in Nga My commune (Tuong Duong) is more than 30 km long. The most difficult part is about 7 km from the commune center to the satellite school, because this road is a rough dirt and rocky road. When the sun comes, just a short distance, clothes are already covered in dust. When it rains, the road is muddy, with potholes, teachers mostly have to walk their bikes. The road is long and teaching conditions are difficult, so every day, teacher Khay stays temporarily at the school. During rainy months, he can only return home once every 3-4 weeks.
Teacher Khay’s colleague is teacher Luong Thi Ha, who lives right in the center of the commune. Although the school changes the number of staff for the satellite school each year, this is the fourth year that Ms. Ha has volunteered to teach at Xop Kho school. Although the conditions are more difficult than the main school, she still volunteered because she wanted to share the work with her colleagues.
Nga My Primary School is implementing the boarding school model. However, currently only students in grades 3, 4, and 5 study at the main school. The remaining 5 schools, the farthest, are approximately 20 km away. In the entire Tuong Duong district, Nga My is one of the 2 communes with the most difficult and remote teaching conditions.
Outsideteachers in remote areas, the teaching schedule of teachers of subjects such as Fine Arts, Music, and Physical Education is also very difficult. Because, in addition to having to take on enough classes at the main schools, teachers will have at least 3 sessions a week to teach at the satellite schools. In extremely difficult travel conditions, but continuously having to go and return on a route of nearly 20 km for many days is a challenge for teachers.
Maintaining many separate schools while the school does not have enough teachers as required makes organizing teaching and learning at school even more difficult. Meanwhile, the new general education program stipulates that teaching must be done 2 sessions/day with 32 periods/week.
Speaking more about this, teacher Kha Van Thong - Principal of the school said: Our school has 21 classes but only 23 teachers, which means that basically there are only enough 1.1 teachers/class. Meanwhile, if teaching 2 sessions/day, there must be 1.5/teachers/class and the school is still short of 5 teachers. Currently, the school still maintains 32 periods/week for students (according to the 2-session/day program) but teaching is extremely difficult and all teachers have to teach extra periods and extra sessions. For now, we are encouraging teachers to teach extra hours, but the funding to pay is difficult, because the school is not allowed to collect money for extra teaching.
Despite many difficulties and a shortage of teachers, Tuong Duong district is one of the few mountainous districts that still maintains teaching 2 sessions/day, with 32 periods/week for primary school students.
Currently, schools in the area fully teach all subjects and activities according to the regulations of the 2018 General Education Program for grades 1, 2, 3, and 4. For grade 5 in particular, we teach the 2006 General Education Program in the direction of developing students' qualities and abilities to proactively approach the 2018 General Education Program. In addition, schools arrange additional educational activities, such as extracurricular activities, reading books and newspapers, and experiential activities according to the theme of each month, to contribute to improving the quality of comprehensive education for students.
Through discussion, Mr. Tran Van Hung - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nghia Dan district said: In Nghia Dan district, if calculated by the number of teachers (1 teacher/1 class), the whole district is lacking 27 homeroom teachers. Meanwhile, if calculating enough teachers teaching 2 sessions/day with the number of 1.5 teachers/class, the whole district is lacking about 60 cultural teachers. Not to mention, the district is also lacking many primary school teachers, English teachers and subject teachers.
According to Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nghia Dan district, to maintain teaching 2 sessions/day with 32 periods/week, the district is simultaneously implementing many solutions: "All schools lacking teachers are having to contract additional teachers, even retired teachers. Besides, for special subjects, we have to arrange teachers to teach inter-school. Even in many schools, the Vice Principal also has to take on the role of homeroom teacher, teaching culture. We are encouraging all teachers who go over the limit to teach extra hours. In addition, the department is consulting with the district to arrange additional budget to support salary payments for schools lacking teachers."
Not guaranteed according to standard program
From this school year, the arrangement of the number of periods for primary school students at Nam Can Primary and Secondary Boarding School (Ky Son) has been different between grades. Accordingly, for grades 1 and 2, the school is organizing 25 periods/week, grade 3 is 28 periods/week, grade 4 is 30 periods/week and grade 5 is 26 periods/week.
With the current arrangement, teacher Lam Nguyen Ngoc - Principal said: In the short term, the school can only meet the rigid curriculum according to the program distribution and cannot teach additional classes to supplement students. One of the main reasons why organizing 2 sessions/day at Nam Can Primary and Secondary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities is facing many difficulties is because the school is lacking too many teachers. Meanwhile, if teachers teach extra hours, there is no budget to pay.
To make up for the shortage of students, the school encourages teachers to tutor students once a week. However, according to the school leaders, this is essentially voluntary teaching and does not count towards the number of hours teachers actually teach. Therefore, calculating the number of hours teachers spend on extra lessons is difficult to implement.
This situation is happening in many other schools in Ky Son district, especially this school year, when the district has 16 more primary schools recognized as boarding schools. That means the number of teaching hours of primary school teachers in the district will decrease (because teachers are deducted from the number of hours they spend organizing boarding schools) and the demand for teachers in the schools will increase even more.
While the district has not yet added more staff, the shortage of primary school teachers will become more serious, not enough teachers to arrange 32 periods/week for schools.
Compared with the old program,General Education Program 2018For primary school, it is designed to teach 2 sessions/day, therefore, the number of lessons in a school year is increased. In addition to the compulsory lessons according to regulations, according to the instructions of the ministry, students will study additional lessons outside the compulsory program such as self-study guidance lessons, enhanced development. Organizing 2 sessions/day will also create favorable conditions for parents in picking up and dropping off their children when the schools will organize boarding.
However, in Nghe An, although the new General Education Program has entered its 4th year, the number of primary schools teaching the program with 32 periods/week or more is mainly only implemented in some districts, cities and towns in the delta region such as: Do Luong, Dien Chau, Nam Dan, Nghi Loc, Vinh city, Cua Lo town, Thai Hoa town, Quy Chau, Thanh Chuong, Tuong Duong...
In some remaining localities, due to lack of teachers and lack of socialization, many schools organize programs with less than 32 periods/week such as: Quynh Luu, Quy Hop, Ky Son.
Failure to organize enough classes for primary school students will lead to disadvantages for students. However, in the context of the whole province lacking nearly 2,000 primary school teachers, if there is no socialization or no budget to compensate for schools, the implementation will not be feasible.
The story of teacher shortage has not happened overnight, but has been persistent for many years. However, once a new program is implemented, if students do not study according to the proposed program, it will be a huge obstacle for them in the process of comprehensive development and lead to inequality in learning in schools and regions.
