Public kindergartens overloaded: Forecast 5 years in advance still 'unclear'?

(Baonghean) - Overcrowded kindergartens have been a hot spot in the education sector for about a decade now. It is worth noting that the causes of this situation have been clarified, but there is still no effective and thorough solution.

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Population growth hotspots

Nghe An is the 4th largest province in the country in terms of population. In particular, in the last 5 years, Nghe An's population has increased rapidly (statistics of the Provincial Department of Population and Family Planning - see chart). It can be seen that in the years considered "good years" such as 2009 (silver buffalo), 2012 (golden dragon), the number of children born increased dramatically compared to the previous years. When the children born in these years reach the age of going to kindergarten, the number of students in the class will "explode".

Especially when these children turn 5 years old, they will flock to public schools under the universal preschool program, making the enrollment situation in public preschools even more "heated". In fact, the overload in public schools can be predicted in advance if comparing the birth rate statistics and the plan to develop the scale of schools.

The cause of sudden population increase is a long-term cause, not an immediate outbreak. Therefore, at the present time, if we propose solutions to expand the scale of schools and teachers to solve the problems arising from this method in 3-5 years, it is like "waiting until the cow is gone to build a barn". In fact, we need to have a vision and roadmap to solve the situation in the next 3-5 years, especially with the sudden birth rate of 2012, it is certain that by 2017, there will be a new hot spot in the issue of preschool enrollment.

Inadequacies in recruitment

Since 2011, implementing Decision No. 64/QD-UBND.VX on converting semi-public preschools, nearly 6,000 contract teachers of preschool education have been recruited into the payroll. In 2015, facing the shortage of preschool teachers, the People's Committee of Nghe An province continued to decide to assign the target of more than 2,500 preschool teachers under the labor contract regime in public preschools receiving salaries from the central budget support according to the provisions of Joint Circular No. 09/2013/TTLT - BGDĐT - BTC - BNV and other legal sources of the unit. In the first year, more than 1,600 targets were recruited.

Due to the shortage of teachers at preschool level, but the surplus of teachers at primary and secondary levels, the Provincial People's Committee, with the advice of the industry, approved a plan to transfer surplus contract teachers to teach at public preschools (to be retrained to meet the requirements of preschool education). In 2016, the Department of Home Affairs continued to assign over 900 quotas to districts to recruit teachers, and the policy is still to recruit teachers from primary and secondary levels down.

However, not all localities can do this. The reason is because of the difference in salary between teachers on the payroll at primary, secondary and kindergarten levels, so many redundant teachers are not interested in changing schools or levels.

Quynh Vinh A School (Hoang Mai Town) was made use of from an old building built in the 60s by Dai Vinh Cooperative. Part of the building used to be a place to store pesticides. Photo courtesy.

Another problem is that the number of classes has increased, but the number of teachers has not increased or is "waiting" to be decided. To ensure the arrangement of staff to teach classes, many schools accept to "break the barrier" and recruit contract teachers against regulations. For example, Long Son Kindergarten (Anh Son) is regulated to recruit 23 teachers, but the number of classes in the 2016-2017 school year is up to 15. To ensure the arrangement of 2 teachers/class, the school has to recruit 6 teachers on short-term contracts using its own funds and voluntary contributions from parents.

The uneven and delayed situation in the process of staffing and recruiting preschool teachers partly stems from the lack of uniformity in management and responsibility. The Department of Education and Training and the Department of Home Affairs are responsible for reviewing, advising and setting targets, while recruitment, payment of benefits and management are under the authority of local authorities. The recruitment targets set by the department are based on the scale of school infrastructure, while local authorities have to solve the practical problem of the number of classes and students being overloaded compared to the scale of the school on paper.

Lack of interest in the private system

Currently, Nghe An has 534 kindergartens. Of these, there are only 32 non-public schools, plus 100 private classes, the mobilization rate in this block in the whole province accounts for 5% of preschool children and 10% of school children. This number is still too modest and is only concentrated in central areas such as Vinh City, Quynh Luu, Thai Hoa Town, etc.

It is a fact that in big cities like Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, ... the rate of children studying in non-public kindergartens and private classes is overwhelmingly higher than the rate of children studying in the public system, but in Vinh City it is completely opposite. There are 2 main reasons why parents here are not interested in non-public kindergartens: cost and quality.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hung in block 10, Cua Nam ward said: “My daughter is 4 years old this year. Previously, because I could not get into a public school, I sent her to a private school. Although the facilities are quite spacious, the classrooms are airy and there is a breakfast program, the tuition is too high (about 1.6 million VND/month) compared to the income of a couple of civil servants. This year, thanks to our “connections”, we were able to transfer our child to a public school, even though it is not in our district.”

Nutritional regimes in private kindergartens are quite "unstable", some places are more complete, others do not meet nutritional standards. Photo: Documentary.

Not only are the costs higher than public schools (nearly 3 times higher), the quality of non-public preschools is still "unstable". The conclusion of the inspection of non-public preschools in 2015 by the Department of Education and Training shows that some facilities have not seriously implemented the daily routine of children and the preschool education program of the Ministry of Education and Training; teaching equipment and practical activities, and motor development are not fully in accordance with regulations; the child nutrition regime does not balance P - G - L; the origin of food for children has not been proven... Even many private classes operate without a license, recruiting teachers without preschool education degrees to teach.

(To be continued)

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