Teacher rotation: Confusion in methods

(Baonghean) - Transferring and rotating teachers is one of the solutions to balance and rearrange the teaching staff between schools and classes, improve the quality of education and create conditions for teachers who have worked for many years in difficult areas to move to more favorable areas. However, due to many confusions in the way of doing things and the lack of standard regulations, the implementation still faces many difficulties...

Teacher Hoang Thi Thanh - teacher at Con Cuong Town Primary School has done military service 4 times.

Con Cuong is a mountainous district, including 8 communes in the particularly difficult area in the 135 area, namely Binh Chuan, Cam Lam, Don Phuc, Mau Duc, Thach Ngan, Lang Khe, Chau Khe, Mon Son. These are communes that are prioritized by the Government, so in addition to salary, the allowances and incentives of teachers in these communes are often higher than those in 5 communes in favorable areas such as Bong Khe, Luc Da, Yen Khe, town, Chi Khe.

This characteristic is also a difficulty for the district's education sector in the process of rotating teachers, because teachers often prefer to stay in difficult areas to have high incomes and not be under heavy professional pressure. Meanwhile, despite being said to be in favorable areas, teachers still have to travel more than ten kilometers to teach, because there are schools such as Luc Da school (a favorable school) that are only 1-2 kilometers away from Mon Son 2 school (a difficult area).

Therefore, in previous years in Con Cuong, there was a situation where some schools in difficult areas, although lacking teachers, did not recruit more but only accepted teachers every year to reinforce the teachers so that the teachers on the payroll did not have to move elsewhere. Due to this reality, for many years now, the rotation of teachers in Con Cuong has encountered many obstacles. Therefore, to "regulate" teachers between areas and between schools, the district has proposed two solutions. The first is to fulfill the teacher's obligations.

Accordingly, all teachers in schools must do military service in difficult and remote areas for 3 years for men and 2 years for women. After completing one turn in the school, the teachers will rotate again. In addition, if there is rotation, teachers will only be rotated from difficult areas to difficult areas, from favorable areas to favorable areas to avoid affecting the rights of teachers. This process has been carried out continuously for many years, although most teachers seriously comply when required to do military service, but according to the opinions of some teachers, this method is still not really effective. For example, if only rotating from favorable areas to favorable areas, it will be difficult to be fair to all teachers, because there will be people who will stay in difficult areas without the conditions to go to favorable areas.

On the contrary, those who were transferred to other schools found that they could not promote their transfer because the new teaching place was not much different from the conditions of the old teaching place, and it took time to get used to the new environment, and students at the old school were affected because of the change of teachers. Too much military service caused confusion in thinking and interrupted the teaching process. Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh (teacher of the Town Primary School) has been in the profession for 23 years but she had to do military service 4 times at the schools of Chau Khe 3, Mau Duc, Luc Da, Chau Khe 2 with a total time of 6 years. The most recent time was when she was nearly 50 years old. At the Town Primary School, there are 36 teachers, all of whom have to do military service, some have to do it once or twice, some have to do it 3-4 times.

Going to military service many times during the working period also affects the daily life and family care of teachers. According to Mr. Phan Anh Tai - Head of the District Education Department: In the long term, to improve the overall quality of all schools, it is necessary to stabilize the organizational structure and if so, transferring teachers in the form of reinforcement or going to military service for 1-2 years is not the best solution, but there must be a specific rotation plan. How to build regulations must be implemented step by step, because the issue of cadres is a complicated issue, related to the interests of each individual. On the sector side, to build regulations, in the past time, opinions have been taken to survey schools but there are still some questions, so at this time, regulations have not been built to implement rotation.

Coming up with a plan to transfer teachers is also a problem that education departments are currently facing, especially since 2007, after the Provincial People's Committee decentralized the reception, recruitment, and teacher contracts to the People's Committees of districts and schools. Therefore, each district has its own regulations and methods for implementing transfers. However, due to unfair and unserious implementation in many places, there are still teachers who are dissatisfied, and petitions and petitions are filed beyond their level. For example, this year, teacher Nguyen Xuan Ha at Hung Nguyen District Secondary School sent petitions many times because the acting principal Dang Cong Than was unfair in transferring, violated the provisions of the Labor Law, and distorted the results of teacher transfer evaluations.

A few years earlier, 119 teachers were transferred in Yen Thanh district, and they also petitioned the district for its undemocratic and unfair practices. Do Luong district also faced a similar problem in the first year of implementing teacher rotation under the new regulations, because many opinions said that the rotation based on the scoring scale that the district proposed was not appropriate, leading to the situation where older people who had served in the military had to go far away, while younger people were placed in more convenient places. Or many people wondered, "When the transfer period ends, will teachers be able to return to their old schools?", or the way the Department of Education calculated points based on distance in kilometers was unreasonable and unfair. Recalling that, Mr. Nguyen Tat Tay - Head of the Department of Education of Do Luong district also drew many experiences such as: In the transfer process, it is necessary to base on the plan and staff of each school year, balance the needs of teachers and staff of each subject, each region, each school and the work requirements of the whole industry, the legitimate wishes of individuals, and at the same time consider the obligations at schools in difficult areas and mountainous areas in the district.

In fact, since the 2010-2011 school year, the first year of implementing the teacher transfer regulations, Do Luong district has had to amend the regulations many times to adapt to new conditions and new circumstances. Previously, the transfer was exempted for those raising children under 36 months old, but now it is revised to 12 months. Male teachers aged 50 and over and female teachers aged 45 and over no longer have to do military service. In addition, teachers whose husbands work in remote areas, border areas and islands with a regional allowance coefficient of 0.7 or more are also allowed to postpone their transfer.

After 3 years, thanks to the transfer work, the shortage of teachers in 5 difficult communes of Hien Son, Nhan Son, My Son, Tru Son, Dai Son has disappeared, the quality of students in these areas has improved significantly. For example, at Hien Son Secondary School, in the 2010-2011 school year, the school's 10th grade entrance exam results were ranked 284th in the province, but this school year they have risen to 35th; Dai Son Secondary School has risen from 185th to 60th, Tru Son Secondary School has risen from 203rd to 57th out of 433 schools in the province... However, like other districts, Do Luong is currently facing difficulties and has not found a suitable solution when the 3-year transfer period of the first 156 teachers is about to end, but how to arrange them after their service is a problem, while the general mentality of teachers is to return near home...

In Tan Ky district, the difficulty in the rotation process is the issue of ensuring fairness and objectivity for 70% of teachers currently working in favorable areas. Since 2001, Tan Ky district has developed a teacher rotation regulation and revised it every year to suit each situation and each stage. The process of grading teachers is carried out publicly, if there are any urgent suggestions, teachers can discuss directly with school leaders. Thanks to this method, although there are still different opinions about rotation in Tan Ky, it is generally "peaceful" and many districts learn from it and learn from it.

Given these shortcomings, it can be seen that the transfer and rotation of teachers is not a simple matter, although it cannot be denied that it is extremely necessary. Thanks to the implementation of rotation, the unreasonable ratio of teachers and staff in general, and the ratio of subject teachers in particular, can be resolved; a reasonable level of quantity and structure of teachers can be created; gradually resolving the transfer of cases who have worked for many years in difficult areas to favorable areas, suitable to family circumstances; creating motivation to strive to improve the quality of teachers and staff, the quality of teachers in difficult areas, mountainous areas... It is thought that, in this "difficulty", the Department of Education and Training needs to have a document directing and guiding, building a model, with supervision and monitoring, avoiding the current situation of "each district has its own rhythm", "floating". Besides, it is also necessary to listen to teachers' thoughts and wishes, monitor the number of teachers coming and going over the school years to have appropriate adjustment instructions, ensuring fairness, democracy and rights for teachers.

My Ha