Nghe An: Surplus of more than 1,000 teachers before the new school year

In the 2018-2019 school year, according to the approved plan, schools in Nghe An must reduce 180 classes compared to the previous school year.

Adding 203 classes to the 2017-2018 school year will result in a large number of redundant teachers; estimated to be hundreds of teachers.

Students of Tien Thiet Secondary School (Nghi Loc). Photo: MH

Reducing classes is also the reason why solving the problem of surplus in Nghe An is even more difficult. Therefore, although in recent years, the province has had a policy of sending secondary school teachers to teach at preschool level, training or retraining to change subjects, and rearranging suitable work tasks, the surplus is still surplus.

Currently, through synthesis, the whole province still has 1,089 surplus teachers, concentrated at the secondary level and mainly in the two subjects of Literature and Mathematics. Of which, the locality with the largest number of surplus teachers is Dien Chau with 219 teachers (accounting for 21.6% of the total assigned target of the whole district). Following Dien Chau is Yen Thanh with 165 teachers (15.83%), Thanh Chuong with 132 teachers (14.23%), Do Luong with 89 teachers, Anh Son with 69 teachers. The remaining surplus teachers are concentrated in localities such as Nam Dan, Hung Nguyen, Cua Lo, Tan Ky, Hung Loc...

In particular, some mountainous districts, which previously had basically enough teachers, now have surpluses, such as Ky Son (34 teachers), Que Phong (19 teachers), Con Cuong (9 teachers), Tuong Duong (6 teachers) and Nghia Dan (31 teachers).

In particular, three units, Vinh City and the two districts of Quy Hop and Quy Chau, no longer have a surplus of teachers.

The whole province currently has 370 contract teachers under the district's contract; many teachers have worked for many years but are still accepting to teach with a basic salary, without a salary increase for many years, their insurance contribution is also very low, the lowest according to the regulations of the Social Insurance. The locality with the most contract teachers is Do Luong district with 89 people.

Many classrooms in Vinh City are overloaded compared to regulations. Photo: MH

Faced with the requirement to reduce classes, most schools have had to consolidate classes and increase the number of students compared to previous school years. This has created a paradox, which is that many schools have excess classrooms and teachers, but the number of students in classes has increased. This is also a difficulty for schools in arranging and organizing classes in the new school year because most of the previous classrooms were built small, not enough to arrange desks and chairs.

On the teachers' side, due to not having enough class hours, they have to take on additional tasks, teach cross-subjects, and there is a situation where Math and Literature teachers have to also teach Fine Arts and Music. In some localities, teachers are forced to rotate to teach preschool or elementary school, causing frustration among teachers and schools.