Long-term stability and improvement of education quality

Removing "difficulties" for teachers and schools

Local teacher shortages and surpluses have been a reality for many years in Thanh Chuong district. In 2016, the district had a surplus of 65 primary school teachers, 121 secondary school teachers, but a shortage of 137 preschool teachers.

Students of Thanh Chuong district participate in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Innovation Competition. Photo: Huy Thu

However, there are some shortcomings and imbalances in teachers such as the surplus of multi-subject primary school teachers and the shortage of teachers for specific subjects such as Music and Fine Arts. At the secondary level, the imbalance is even more serious when there are more than 100 excess Literature and Math teachers. Meanwhile, there is a shortage of Music, Fine Arts and Technology teachers.

It is worth mentioning that before the imbalance of teachers occurred, Thanh Chuong district also annually rotated and transferred teachers, but this solution was only implemented for a short time and then problems arose.

An extracurricular activity of teachers and students of Thanh Chuong district. Photo: PV

The main reason is that teachers have to be transferred frequently from favorable places to difficult places and vice versa, so the number of teachers fluctuates a lot every year, causing teachers to feel insecure in their work, affecting the quality of education and training of the school.

In addition, due to the increasingly narrowing of the number of teachers transferred (many teachers are over the age limit), many teachers, even though their service has ended, must continue to be transferred a second or third time to ensure a relative level in terms of the proportion and structure of subject teachers between schools, causing difficulties in arranging teaching and learning.

From this reality, on August 12, 2016, Thanh Chuong District Party Committee issued Resolution No. 08 on promulgating the Project "Arranging and improving the quality of teaching staff for the period 2016 - 2020 and the following years".

The project's objective is to arrange and reorganize the entire teaching staff of all levels in the district, to ensure that the ratio of teachers/class, teachers of main subjects/class of secondary school is relatively even between regions, and to stabilize the workplace for teachers.

Thanh Chuong district students participate in the stem innovation contest. Photo: Huy Thu

The project also aims to make every effort to arrange teachers near their place of residence, avoiding frequent annual changes, to facilitate improving the quality of teaching and learning.

At Thanh Ngoc Kindergarten 2 years ago, there was a serious shortage of teachers because the school had 10 classes but only 14 teachers (6 teachers were missing).

Therefore, in addition to the priority for 3-year-old and 5-year-old classes with 2 teachers/class, the remaining classes mostly have only 1 teacher/class. This is really a huge pressure for many teachers because the nature of preschool education is very heavy, both teaching and taking care of children, going early and coming home late. Most teachers in the school are overloaded with work.

This difficulty did not occur in one year but had existed for many years. Therefore, when Thanh Chuong district implemented the project “Arrangement and improvement of the quality of the teaching staff”, Thanh Ngoc Kindergarten was assigned many more teachers, increasing the teacher ratio in the school to 1.8 teachers/class.

Thanh Chuong district honors teachers with high achievements in the 2018 - 2019 school year. Photo: HT

In addition, there are 2 teachers in the school who voluntarily asked to be transferred to another region to suit their family circumstances. Talking about the implementation process, teacher Le Thi Hong Loan - Principal of the school said: Among the teachers transferred to our school, there are both primary and secondary school teachers.

At first, when they first took over the job, they had difficulties, but the school tried to arrange the work reasonably, pairing new teachers with solid, experienced teachers so that they could have the opportunity to learn. Luckily for us, although we had to change the level of education, after the transfer, these teachers were able to teach near their home, so they felt secure in their work and continued to make efforts and strive.

After being transferred, these teachers were able to teach near their homes, so they felt secure in their work and continued to make efforts and strive.

Le Thi Hong Loan - Principal of Thanh Ngoc Kindergarten

Objective, no pressure

Up to this point, after more than 2 years of implementing the project, Thanh Chuong district has basically arranged and allocated quite reasonably teachers at preschool and primary levels based on the actual number of teachers in the district.

Specifically, at preschool level, if previously, there was an imbalance between regions, the highest place was 1.7 teachers/class and the lowest place was 1.4 teachers/class, now it has been adjusted to nearly 1.6 teachers/class.

Thanh Yen Secondary School Library. Photo: MH

At the primary level, after transferring the positions of about 180 teachers, the teachers' psychology has been more stable as they have been arranged to work near home, making their work more convenient.

The local surplus and shortage of teachers have also been adjusted to minimize the imbalance between subject teachers. Speaking more about the results, teacher Nguyen Thi Thuyet - Principal of Thanh An Primary School shared: In previous years, because many teachers lived far from school, we encountered many difficulties when arranging professional matters. The teachers themselves also had a hard time traveling, especially during the rainy season.

Currently, 7 teachers who live too far from school have been transferred to schools closer to their families, so all teachers in the school are excited and the school has more favorable conditions for professional activities, without as much disruption as before.

An experiential lesson of Thanh Chi Primary School students. Photo: PV

The initial results achieved at preschool and primary levels are also the basis for Thanh Chuong district to rearrange the teaching staff at secondary level in 2019 according to the roadmap of the Project.

This is also the most difficult level because currently the whole district has more than 100 surplus teachers, so in addition to rearranging appropriately according to teachers' wishes, the district also needs to consider harmony between schools and between subjects.

Up to this point, although the arrangement plans are being carefully considered by the district's departments and branches (the district has established a Council for teacher arrangement and assignment to ensure strictness and objectivity), through discussion, Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee said: "The rearrangement of the secondary school teaching staff this year must be in accordance with the spirit of Resolution 08/2016 of the District Party Committee issued with Project 1719.

In this situation of local surplus and shortage of teachers and imbalance, we identify this as a very difficult and complicated problem, related to each individual and each specific situation. However, in the current context of the district, re-arrangement is necessary to overcome the problems that have existed for many years due to history.

During the implementation process, we also identified the biggest difficulty as being unable to meet the wishes of the vast majority of teachers, but this is the most reasonable solution. Therefore, the district also hopes to receive the sharing and high consensus of the collective of teachers and schools.

During the implementation process, we also identified the biggest difficulty as it is difficult to meet the wishes of the vast majority of teachers, but this is the most reasonable solution. Therefore, the district also hopes to receive the sharing and high consensus of the collective of teachers and schools.

Nguyen Van Chien - Vice Chairman of Thanh Chuong District People's Committee

The district has also organized many meetings from the grassroots to the district to listen to the wishes of teachers, organized teachers to submit applications according to their wishes, conducted reviews, and clearly identified each criterion. The district also determined that the transfer must ensure objectivity, seriousness, and transparency, closely following two principles: it must be close to the project and the set goals. In addition, the arrangement must be reasonable for each region, each school, each subject, and create all favorable conditions for teachers to work with peace of mind...".

Previously, according to the approved project, the subjects of the arrangement were all teachers in the area, except for teachers with less than 24 months of service and those with truly special circumstances (to be considered and decided by the Council). When mobilizing, the highest priority is given to maintaining the same work unit for teachers who have been arranged near their place of residence. The mobilizing teachers will ensure that they are not too far away from 12 km (for the plains) and 10 km (for the mountains) and 7 km (if they have to go by boat) according to their permanent residence.

Experiential lesson of students at Thanh Chi Primary School - Thanh Chuong. Photo: PV

The rearrangement of the teaching staff with about 140 people at the secondary level is also the final phase to implement the project "Arranging, reorganizing, and improving the quality of teachers in Thanh Chuong district in the period 2016 - 2020".

This is also a good premise for Thanh Chuong district to focus on training and improving the quality of teachers in the coming years, gradually approaching the new comprehensive general education program and improving the quality of education and training at all levels.