Are primary school teachers eliminated from the profession if they do not meet college standards?

"The Law coming into effect does not mean that those who do not meet the qualifications will be eliminated from the industry," the Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Primary Education emphasized.

On November 30, the Ministry of Education and Training held a workshop to provide comments on the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education to collect comments on the draft amended Law on Education.

According to the draft amendment and supplement to a number of articles of the current Education Law signed by Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha, there is a proposal to raise the standards for primary school teachers from intermediate to college.

Specifically, the Draft amends and supplements Point a, Clause 1, Article 77 as follows: "Having a secondary school pedagogical diploma for preschool teachers, a college pedagogical diploma for primary school teachers".

Agreeing with this proposal of the Ministry of Education and Training, Mr. Nguyen The Binh - Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ha Giang province said that currently, the qualifications of primary school teachers have far exceeded the regulations of the previous Education Law, so raising the standards is reasonable.

"The Law coming into effect does not mean that those who do not meet the qualifications will be eliminated from the industry" - Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Primary Education (Ministry of Education and Training) - Nguyen Duc Huu emphasized. Photo: Xuan Trung

Mr. Binh informed that in Ha Giang - a mountainous area with many ethnic minorities and a border province, the level of primary school teachers reaching above standard is more than 70%.

However, Mr. Binh also proposed that if the revised Law on Education raises standards for primary school teachers, there should be a specific implementation roadmap for disadvantaged areas and regions that cannot immediately meet the set standards to help these localities implement the new standards.

In addition, this person also suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should conduct research to make the concept of "educational management staff" a chapter or an article in the Law because current reality shows that when teachers accept work at the Department of Education and Training, they naturally lose all allowances or should we transfer staff from other sectors to manage the education sector?

Regarding this issue, Ms. Chu Thi Yen - Principal of Lang Son Primary School, Yen Dung, Bac Giang said that going to school to improve standards for young teachers is feasible, but for older teachers who are about to retire, improving standards will cause many difficulties for teachers. Therefore, the Ministry needs to create conditions for this group of teachers.

Discussing these concerns of the delegates, Mr. Nguyen Duc Huu - Deputy Director in charge of the Department of Primary Education, Ministry of Education and Training said:

Raising qualifications is in line with world trends, many countries now require primary school teachers to have a master's degree.

In Vietnam, as of September 2017, 33/63 provinces and cities had a rate of 90% of primary school teachers above standard, only 3 provinces, Ha Giang, Tuyen Quang and Lao Cai, had a rate below 70%, of which the lowest was Tuyen Quang, 63.86%.

From this figure, Mr. Huu said that this is the reason why the drafting committee proposed to include the upgrading of primary school teacher qualifications in this draft.

Regarding the roadmap for upgrading primary school teacher standards, Mr. Huu informed:

“It is expected that those with intermediate qualifications who have worked for 1-5 years will be regularly trained by the locality to improve their qualifications, meet the needs of innovation, and will not be required to retrain to obtain a college degree.

For those who have worked for more than 5 years, their qualifications will be raised with flexible and appropriate training methods.

"The Law coming into effect does not mean that those who do not meet the standards will be eliminated from the industry," Mr. Huu emphasized.

According to Giaoduc.net