Nghe An: The difficult problem of teacher shortage

Struggling to arrange teachers for class

In recent days, Hung Dong Primary School (Vinh City) has had to post information on personal Facebook pages to recruit English teachers for the new school year. After nearly a week of posting continuously, the school has finally recruited 2 more contract teachers, partly supplementing the shortage of teachers for the new school year.

Sharing about this, teacher Tran Thi Thu Hang - Principal of the school said: This school year, our school needs 7 English teachers, but the payroll only has 4 people, not enough to arrange teachers to teach in class. Currently, we have recruited 2 more teachers but still lack 1 and this school year, English teachers are forced to increase their hours to ensure the teaching plan.

Due to the lack of teachers, the arrangement of teachers at Hung Dong Primary School is facing many difficulties. Photo: Duc Anh

Hung Dong Primary School is located quite far from the city center, so according to the school principal, recruiting English teachers is difficult, because the current demand of schools is very large. Meanwhile, English teachers prefer to teach at centers near their homes rather than go far away. In addition to English, the school continues to lack teachers for Fine Arts, Music, and Physical Education, and currently the number of teachers assigned only meets 1/3 of the required number of classes.

To overcome this situation, the school is forced to increase the number of cultural teachers for special gifted subjects, although this is difficult to achieve the required quality. Meanwhile, the school is currently short of 6 cultural teachers if the regulation is 1.5 teachers/class.

Similarly, Doi Cung Primary School (Vinh City) is also lacking 6 cultural teachers this school year and the school is forced to recruit additional contract teachers outside the payroll. Teacher Lai Thi Thai Ha - Principal of the school said: Luckily, we found enough teachers before the new school year and did not fall into a shortage of teachers. However, that is only a temporary solution and the school's wish is to have more staff so that teachers can work with peace of mind and stay with the school for a long time.

Teachers and students of Doi Cung Primary School - Vinh city. Photo: My Ha

The shortage of teachers is happening in many schools and localities across the province. Therefore, before the new school year begins, many schools are still struggling because they do not know how to arrange things properly. At Nghi Phuong Secondary School (Nghi Loc), this school year is the second year the school has implemented the new general education program, but the school still does not have a teacher to teach Informatics (although this is a compulsory subject). The school's current solution is to "promote" a Math teacher to teach Informatics or a teacher who knows information technology to teach Informatics. Overall, the school is lacking many other teachers such as 1 Physics teacher, 1 Literature teacher, teachers of gifted subjects such as Fine Arts and Music.

Almost every teacher at school has to take on at least one subject, as long as they can sing they can teach Music, even the principal. However, that is a temporary solution, because it will certainly not be effective.

For example, our school currently has a music room but no teachers who can play musical instruments. For many Art and Music classes, we have to arrange for English, Literature or Math teachers to teach the class so that they can take advantage of the time to supplement cultural knowledge for students.

Teacher Nguyen Cong Son - Principal of Nghi Phuong Secondary School

Nghi Loc district is currently short of more than 200 teachers at all three levels, especially at the primary level. The current number of primary school teachers is not even enough to arrange homeroom teachers because the whole district has 625 classes but only 619 teachers. Recruiting contract teachers is facing many difficulties because "demand" exceeds "supply".

Mr. Nguyen Van Thong - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nghi Loc district said: "The lack of teachers is causing many difficulties for schools in arranging teachers to teach in the classroom. For now, we are prioritizing arranging enough teachers for grades 1, 2, 3 to implement the new General Education Program. The remaining two grades are grades 4 and 5. If we do not have enough teachers, we may have to consider the solution of rotating "one homeroom teacher for 2 grades (divided into morning and afternoon classes) and students only study 1 session/day instead of 2 sessions/day".

Teaching and learning quality faces great challenges

The problem of teacher shortage in Nghe An has not only occurred this school year but has occurred for many years, causing difficulties in organizing teaching and learning in schools. Faced with this situation, many localities have been forced to transfer teachers from junior high school to teach primary school in the form of secondment, such as Nghi Loc district, which has seconded more than 20 junior high school teachers in Math and Vietnamese to support primary schools, and Yen Thanh district has also seconded more than 60 teachers since last year.

A long-term shortage of teachers can affect the quality of teaching and learning. Photo: My Ha

Mr. Tran Xuan Tinh - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Yen Thanh district added: The whole district of Yen Thanh is lacking more than 200 teachers at all levels. In the current context, the Department of Education and Training has advised the district to support schools to contract more guest teachers and the district will pay the cost with an estimated budget of about 5 billion VND/school year.

Mr. Mai Ngoc Long - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Dien Chau district also said: We are seriously lacking primary school teachers and need 300 more teachers to ensure the ratio of 1.3 teachers/class. Currently, we are expanding the scope of teacher recruitment nationwide, not limited to the district or province, as long as they ensure the conditions of qualifications and training according to regulations. For the remaining shortage, the district has also allocated budget to support schools to pay more for guest teachers.

Teacher shortages are common in many primary schools across the province. Photo: My Ha

According to the synthesis of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, although this year, the Ministry of Home Affairs has added more than 2,800 positions to the province, there is still a shortage of more than 6,000 teachers at all levels. To support schools, some localities have allocated budgets for schools to contract more guest teachers. Many schools are having to collect additional funds to pay teachers' salaries (to teach more classes) or to mobilize teachers to teach extra hours, arrange cross-subjects or teach inter-school, which is extremely difficult.

The problem of teacher shortage may continue for many years to come and if there are no fundamental solutions or additional staff, the education sector will still face many difficulties. Previously, the Department of Education and Training also compiled statistics and forecasted the increase in student population, number of classes and demand for teachers at all levels to advise the People's Committee of Nghe An province to approve the Project on Developing the Team of Management Staff, Preschool and General Education Teachers for the period 2021-2025, with a vision to 2030. It is expected that due to the rapid increase in the number of students, by 2025, the province will need 9,812 more teachers and by 2030, 13,307 more teachers...