Nghe An: Contract teachers and localities yearn for official positions

Before the news that Nghe An was supplemented with more than 2,800 positions, many expectations were sent to hope for a stable job soon, peace of mind to stick with the school, the class, and the students.

1. Teacher Phan Thi Huyen - Biology teacher - Le Thi Bach Cat Secondary School - Cua Lo Town

I graduated from Vinh University in 2011 and have been working at Le Thi Bach Cat Secondary School since then, nearly 12 years and still am.contract teachers

Compared to the permanent teachers, although our duties are the same, we are disadvantaged in many ways, especially in terms of benefits. For example, during the summer, we receive a salary, but we do not have money to teach classes. Contract teachers are also not considered for professional titles to receive new salary levels, and in addition, there are other disadvantages in terms of spirit, and we are not assured in our work.

Our current wish is that agencies, departments and sectors help and have support policies for contract teachers who have not yet been on the payroll. In addition, we also hope that when there are quotas and contracts, agencies and sectors will consider allowing long-term contract teachers who have contributed a lot to the industry to be on the payroll so that we can soon stabilize our jobs.

2. Teacher Hoang Duy Hoi - Principal of Le Thi Bach Cat Secondary School - Cua Lo Town.

Le Thi Bach Cat School was established in 2009 and currently has 38 staff and teachers, including 3 teachers and 1 contract employee. They are all people who have been with the school for a long time, the oldest one was born in 1977, currently a Literature teacher and a Team Leader. Although the town and the school have paid attention and tried to pay salaries, increase salaries and allowances to make teachers and contract employees feel secure, compared to other teachers, they have disadvantages such as not being paid for teaching classes during the summer and not being considered for promotion.

Despite many disadvantages, over the years, the teachers and contract staff at our school have been very enthusiastic, participating in all tasks set by the school, especially in teaching and implementing educational activities. Among them, there are teachers who are excellent teachers of the province, teachers who are excellent teachers of the town, teachers who have many excellent students of the province every year. The school highly appreciates the professional capacity of the contract teachers, they are trained in basic skills, all graduated from regular universities and are trusted by the school to train excellent students, teach classes according to the 2018 general education reform program of the Ministry of Education and Training.

We hope that superiors will create conditions for teachers and contract employees to soon join the state payroll to enjoy legitimate benefits.

3. Mr. Phan Van Thiet - Head of Education and Training Department of Ky Son district

The arrangement of teaching staff in Ky Son district currently has many shortcomings. In particular, for English teachers, due to standard regulations on recruitmentteacherElementary school requires a university degree, so it is very difficult for Ky Son students to be recruited after graduating from college. Currently, the whole district has 33 schools but only 12 English teachers. The district has recruitment targets but there are no registration documents to submit for the exam. This is a situation that has been going on for several years in Ky Son.

At the secondary school level, there is currently a local surplus and shortage. For example, there are many teachers of Literature and History, but there is a shortage of specific subjects such as Geography, Chemistry, etc. Therefore, cross-teaching of subjects in Ky Son is happening a lot. For preschool teachers, at this time, the total quota assigned to the whole industry at all three levels of education is due to the total quota. But in reality, Ky Son has a surplus of secondary school teachers and occupies the proportion of preschool teachers, there are no recruitment quotas.

Due to the characteristics of the mountainous district of Ky Son, there is currently a great shortage of preschool teachers. Therefore, we hope that in the recruitment process for English teachers, superiors need to deduct recruitment quotas for them to complete their qualifications so that we can recruit English at the college level.

The whole district has only 1.5 preschool teachers/class (while according to regulations, 2.0 teachers/class are needed - for 5-year-old classes), so we hope that in the upcoming assigned quota, we will be given priority to arrange preschool teachers and English teachers.

4. Teacher Luong Thi Nguyet - contract teacher 06-09 - Kim Son Kindergarten - Que Phong

I graduated from History Pedagogy and studied for a master's degree. At first, I still thought that I would follow the first path that I had chosen. However, life could not go as I wished and I turned to work as a preschool teacher for many years. In fact, over the years, with a modest salary, I had times when I found it difficult and thought that I could find a better job, with a higher income to improve my life. But then, there were many factors that prevented me from giving up the job I had chosen. Like the first years, I was assigned to work at Thong Thu Kindergarten and there were 3 factors that kept me there, the first was my colleagues and the care of the school's Board of Directors. At that time, my child was only under 12 months old, my husband worked in the armed forces far from home and I always received support from colleagues and the school, I was always assigned to the nearest school for work convenience.

The second is the image of the little students, in the morning they bring sticky rice and food to the teacher. The image of students whose clothes may not be complete, who do not have sandals to wear, but they still go to school happily, love their teacher and school. The second is the concern of parents for teachers. Those things keep me in the profession, make us feel warm and that forces me to improve my own capacity, improve my professional expertise, cultivate the moral qualities of a teacher to be able to stick with the profession for a long time. In the coming time, we hope to receive the attention of leaders at all levels, of the Department of Education and Training so that teachers 06-09 can be on the payroll, so that we have the motivation to devote ourselves to the cause of education.

5. Teacher Luong Quoc Cuong - Contract teacher of Information Technology - Kim Son Primary School - Que Phong

I graduated in 2009 and worked at many schools. I love the industry, love the profession and always hope that students will receive information technology and get acquainted with Informatics.

After 13 years of working, what I worry about is that I am still a contract teacher. With a salary of 2-3 million VND/month, it is really not enough to cover expenses because the cost of gas and transportation alone accounts for a large percentage, I also have a small child and difficult circumstances. Currently, in addition to my work at school, I still have extra jobs outside, but the work is not regular because I am still busy with teaching. Life has long depended on my extended family. Because of my passion for the profession, I hope that leaders at all levels will create favorable conditions to consider having quotas for IT teachers so that we can soon be on the payroll and work with peace of mind for the cause of educating people.

Previously, the Ministry of Home Affairs had added 2,820 positions to Nghe An to solve the problem of teacher shortage that is seriously happening in the area. The quotas are specifically allocated to 4 levels of education, including 2,164 positions for preschool teachers; 498 positions for primary school teachers; 142 positions for junior high school teachers; and 16 positions for high school teachers./.