The anxieties of the 'season of being sent on assignment'!

This situation is recurring this school year, with the teacher shortage worsening and the secondment and transfer of teachers essentially "filling a larger shortage with more resources."

It's difficult to "pick it up and put it down."

A week ago, the meeting to select teachers for transfer or secondment in the English department of Tra Lan Secondary School (Con Cuong) lasted until noon. Meanwhile, the evaluation meeting for the school's Math department also extended into the afternoon. However, to this day, there is still no final decision on whether the teachers will stay or leave.

“Choosing which teachers stay and which leave is a very difficult decision, and we have to weigh the pros and cons many times. This process is also carried out democratically and transparently by the school, but it's truly not easy because it directly affects the lives of the workers,” shared Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Nguyet, Principal of Tra Lan Secondary School.

Tra Lan Secondary School is a model school in Con Cuong district. Since the last school year, the school has merged with the town school, so the number of classes has increased to 24, with over 900 students, making it one of the schools with the largest number of students in the district.

Currently, with 41 teachers (including the Head of the Youth Union), the school's teacher-to-class ratio is 1.67 teachers per class, considered higher than the district average, but still lower than the provincial average and below the Ministry of Education and Training's regulation of 1.9 teachers per class. To balance the number of teachers throughout the district, recently, according to the plan for arranging teachers and staff in Con Cuong district for the 2023-2024 school year, Tra Lan Secondary School has a surplus of 3 teachers (Mathematics, Literature, and English) and a shortage of Computer Science teachers. To ensure a balanced teaching force among schools, the school is forced to transfer 3 teachers, which is a difficult problem for the school.

Regarding this, the school principal added: "We see drawbacks in transferring teachers. For example, we currently have 4 English teachers and are allocating the required 19 lessons per class. But if we have to transfer English teachers, the school's teachers will have to work an additional 23 or 24 lessons per week, leading to overload. Not to mention that the school's teaching staff is mainly comprised of core teachers from the education department, who, in addition to their school duties, also take on many other responsibilities, such as tutoring gifted students and conducting training, so they won't have enough time."

In the remaining subjects, transferring teachers is also not easy. Initially, the school allows departments to self-assess and evaluate the abilities of teachers, and will transfer the teacher with the lowest score. However, from a general perspective, this is unfair to the receiving school and is likely to cause questions within the teaching staff.

Prior to the teacher transfers this school year, many teachers in the school who were slated for transfer also submitted letters expressing their desire to remain.

In her application, Ms. Pham Thi Thu Hien, an English teacher, stated: "I have no desire to be transferred" because "my child has a serious illness, my own health is not good, and my eyesight is poor, making it impossible for me to travel long distances. If I am to serve under a mandatory military service program and return to the school after my service period, I am willing to accept it. Otherwise, I request to be returned to my old unit, Yen Khe Secondary School."

On the eve of the new school year, the Department of Education and Training of Con Cuong district received approximately 60 letters from teachers throughout the district requesting assistance.transferThe work was carried out, and within that process, only about 20 teachers had their issues resolved.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh An, Head of the District Education and Training Department, said: There are two categories of people requesting transfers: firstly, those working in disadvantaged areas who want to move closer to home; secondly, those who want to transfer to specialized areas to receive additional allowances.

However, the district must carefully consider all cases and only transfer teachers in two situations: firstly, when the receiving location is experiencing a shortage of teachers; and secondly, when the teacher structure throughout the district is properly balanced. The district also aims to ensure long-term stability, quality of the teaching staff, and subject structure in the placement and arrangement of teachers. The goal is to minimize the tendency to choose schools or workplaces, ensuring objectivity, fairness, and preventing disunity and corruption. In other cases, teachers will be seconded for 1-3 years before returning to their original unit.

We need fundamental solutions.

The issue of transferring and seconding teachers is not unique to Con Cuong district; it's a common story across many localities in the province and is being implemented simultaneously before the start of the new school year. In Anh Son district, the District Department of Internal Affairs is currently receiving dozens of applications for transfers from teachers and staff throughout the education sector. Most applications express a desire to be transferred to a school closer to home after many years of working far from family, facing travel difficulties, and being older.

The application from teacher Pham Thi Hong Lam (born in 1979), currently working at Cao Son Secondary School, requests a transfer to teach at a school in the town, citing difficult family circumstances, raising two young children alone, and lacking stable housing.

Meanwhile, teacher Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc (born in 1976), after more than 20 years of service, including 16 years on the left bank of the river, is requesting a transfer closer to home because after many years of arduous travel, her health has deteriorated, her husband works far away, and she has young children, leaving her with little time to care for and supervise them…

After reviewing the teachers' applications, Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh – Head of the Internal Affairs Department of Anh Son District – also stated that: All teachers requesting transfers to work closer to home have legitimate reasons. However, fulfilling the teachers' wishes is very difficult, as it depends on the teacher structure of each school. In reality, the number of teachers transferred according to their wishes each year is not large, because many schools in the area are short of teachers.

Besides teachers, in May of this year, the Anh Son District Department of Internal Affairs also issued a rather unusual document responding to requests from several accountants in the district to resign from their duties. Many of these individuals had worked for many years, but due to low salaries and meager responsibility allowances, they requested to transfer to service positions or asked for unpaid leave.

With its large number of schools, wide geographical area, and rapidly increasing student population over the years, Do Luong district has for many years been grappling with the imbalance in the ratio of teachers and staff in general, and the ratio of subject-specific teachers in schools, due to fluctuations in school sizes and changes in the workforce within units and the entire education sector. The number of seconded teachers also reaches dozens per year.

During the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Tat Tay – Head of the District Education and Training Department – ​​also stated that this year, they are short of more than 200 teachers, and the teacher-to-student ratio in schools is still low. However, to ensure teaching and learning, the district is forced to transfer teachers. In the process, the district will continue to address the transfer of teachers who have worked for many years in disadvantaged areas and wish to move to more favorable areas, in accordance with their family circumstances.

In addition, teachers will be seconded to schools in disadvantaged and mountainous areas to ensure that teaching activities can be carried out; surplus teachers in secondary school subjects will be seconded to teach at primary schools, with priority given to teachers for schools that are undertaking the task of building national standard schools and quality accreditation.

Regarding the secondment and transfer of teachers, in September 2022, the Department of Internal Affairs issued Document No. 2239 providing guidance on implementation. This document requires units to ensure stability, continuity, and meet the requirements for the structure, quantity, and quality of the teaching and staff workforce; to balance the shortage and surplus of teachers and staff among public education institutions at the district level; and to only transfer or second teachers and staff from schools with a surplus to schools with a shortage, based on job position structure or the need for increased staffing. Exceptional cases will be decided by the Chairman of the District People's Committee.

The implementation must be open, transparent, democratic, and fair, establishing criteria and standards for selection, and transferring teachers and staff according to their wishes first, before considering secondment of teachers and staff, ensuring suitability to the actual conditions in the locality.
Currently, most localities are basically following these guidelines, but in the long term, the districts hope that the province and relevant departments will soon advise on the allocation of sufficient teachers, as Nghe An province is currently short of nearly 6,000 teachers. This would also reduce the number of annual transfers and secondments and help teachers and staff feel secure in their work and successfully complete their assigned tasks.

My Ha - Tien Hung