Nghe An has nearly 300 'too old' team leaders

(Baonghean) - The aging of the team of Team Leaders (TPTĐ) has been a reality for many years in the province. Besides the TPTĐs with over 10 years of experience who are still in the profession, there are also teachers who no longer want to take on this role. How to create resources for this team is a big concern.

Born in 1966, with 23 years of experience as the leader of the Youth Union, teacher Ngo Thi Ha - Le Loi Secondary School (Vinh City) always considers the Youth Union work as a great passion in her teaching career. She said: "Many people when they are old often have difficulty attracting students to participate in superficial movements, or when approaching new skills in the Youth Union profession. Personally, I find the Youth Union work very favorable until now."

For many years, Le Loi Secondary School has not only been a strong movement unit in the city but also highly appreciated for its discipline. That is because the teacher in charge of the team has known how to integrate team movements into education to improve life skills, thereby creating excitement and competitive spirit in students in studying and training.

Teacher Ngo Thi Ha - Le Loi Secondary School (Vinh City) guides the team's etiquette in the opening ceremony.

In the province, there are currently 283 teachers out of 950 teachers in charge of the Youth Union who are over 35 years old. Of these, more than 60% wish to take on the position of general leader for a long time.

For example, teacher Nguyen Thai Tuan - Head of the Team of Muong Xen Town Primary School, is 40 years old this year. Team work is always a joy and a passion for him. Although he has been in the profession for 16 years, he has never faltered or thought of "giving way" to a younger teacher. Simply because he is a truly talented person, truly loves the work of gathering and attracting team members.

During his time as a Team leader, Mr. Tuan and the Team have achieved many remarkable achievements such as 10 consecutive years of being the excellent team leader at the provincial level; receiving a certificate of merit from the Central Executive Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Secondary School Youth Union; and he himself is also the most successful teacher in charge of the Ky Son District Team Council to date.

In primary and secondary schools today, the teacher - the Team Leader always plays an important role in educating students' ethics and managing school movement activities. He is the one who is under a lot of pressure from the principal, homeroom teachers and even from individual students.

Therefore, it is not easy to find a Team leader who is enthusiastic and capable of doing movement work. Therefore, for Team leaders who are over the age limit but still perform this role well, they are the core of the movement. Finding a successor for them is very difficult in the current practical conditions.

Students of Le Loi Secondary School (Vinh City) compete in tug of war.

On another level, according to current regulations, primary and secondary schools are currently assigned one teacher as the Team leader. Primary school teachers teach 23 periods/week, secondary school teachers teach 19 periods/week. For type 1 schools, the Team leader does not have to teach, type 2 schools teach 1/3 of the periods, type 3 schools teach 1/2 of the periods according to regulations.

The regulations are so clear, but many teachers assigned this task do not want to do it because this is really an extremely hard job and under a lot of pressure.

A typical example is the case of teacher Tran Phuong Thao - Team Leader of Ha Huy Tap Secondary School, currently 38 years old with 16 years as Team Leader. She is an English teacher, so in addition to Team work, she still teaches 6 lessons a week. However, after 16 years, Ms. Thao still has to try to fulfill two roles at the same time, and for her, the role of Team Leader is too heavy for an English teacher.

“At this age, I feel like I can't keep up with the times, especially in understanding student psychology, and I want my superiors to find a replacement,” Ms. Thao said.

The Team ceremony has become a festival in all the countryside of Nghe An. Photo: Tran Canh Yen

Currently, only a few teacher training colleges train teachers specializing in the work of the Young Pioneers, while the majority have not yet opened this major. Therefore, in many localities, the majority of teachers take on the job of Young Pioneers leader without having expertise in Young Pioneers work.

Meanwhile, for teachers who work in the Youth Union, it requires a lot of skills. In addition to passion, they must know how to control and organize games, and know how to educate and help individual students. However, looking at the current division of labor, there are many shortcomings, not all teachers can take on this task properly.

The current assignment of teachers in charge of the Youth Union has very few people who are in line with their training majors, usually teachers trained at junior high and high school levels, but due to the surplus of teachers, they take on this job. Therefore, most of them do not understand the psychology of the age group, and are limited in terms of Youth Union work. Moreover, at the same time, those who do Youth Union work have to take on many activities in the unit such as: educating students' ethics, taking care of hygiene, school movements... so many teachers always feel inhibited and bear invisible pressure in their work.

Thanh Nga - Thanh Chung