'Long distance' like teacher establishment
(Baonghean.vn) - The shortage of teachers and school staff has been happening in Nghe An for many years, leading to many difficulties for schools. Meanwhile, thousands of teachers, contract employees and newly graduated pedagogical students have difficulty finding jobs, leading to many paradoxes.
Waiting for official
Entering his 21st year of work and being the head of the Natural Science Department of Nghi Thu Secondary School (Cua Lo town), teacher Nguyen Dinh Thanh is considered one of the veteran and core teachers of the Cua Lo Education sector. Diligent, always persistent in his work, loving his profession and students, he is also trusted by his colleagues and parents.
“I am still a contract teacher and probably the most experienced contract teacher today,” said teacher Nguyen Dinh Thanh when we mentioned his work process.
Although we are contract teachers, we are still paid and increased by the town according to regulations. A few years ago, we were also paid seniority and teaching fees like the regular teachers. However, compared to a regular teacher, we also have disadvantages and have less opportunities to develop, for example, we are not paid for teaching classes during the 3 summer months or are not considered for teacher promotion, and are not appointed even though we are qualified.
Nghi Thuy Secondary School currently has 6 teachers,contract employeesand have been with the unit for over 10 years. Each person has a different situation but all have many difficulties.
Ms. Vo Thi Thuy Hang (36 years old), graduated from the Faculty of Literature Pedagogy and later completed her master's degree. When she was first recruited to the school, she had been teaching for 1 year. However, later, because there were too many teachers but not enough staff for the library and archives, she switched to this job. For nearly 10 years, because of her love for the profession and her desire to return to the role of a teacher, she has never lost hope of standing on the podium one day.
“I am currently still under contract and receiving an employee salary, so my income is only over 5 million VND/month. Meanwhile, I have to take care of my elderly parents and raise 2 small children. In fact, for a long time, in addition to working at school, I also have to tutor in the evenings and on holidays to earn extra income,” said Ms. Hang.
With a salary of nearly 7 million VND/month, teacher Le Thi Loi - a teacher at Nghi Hoa Kindergarten, Cua Lo town, has to pay for many expenses. Of which, each month she has to spend nearly 2 million VND/month to pay for accommodation and gas, because each day she travels a distance of nearly 40 km to and from school.
“Since I was a child, I loved playing musical instruments, singing, and the job of a preschool teacher. Therefore, after graduating with a degree in preschool education, I persevered with this job with the hope of soon being on the payroll. During my 15 years of work, the town has recruited many times, but I was not a priority or did not meet the requirements, so I have not been able to do so yet. Currently, the whole town only has 3 preschool teachers on contract…”, Ms. Loi confided.
Like many other teachers and contract employees, in addition to teaching at school, Ms. Loi also has to live off of her extra income, which is teaching piano to students who are preparing for entrance exams to gifted schools. However, because the work at the kindergarten is too stressful, leaving early and returning late, the number of extra hours is not much.
Resolving difficulties for workers and schools
Not only teachers in Cua Lo town, in Nghe An province there are many teachers and contract employees, many of whom have worked for over 20 years. However, the number of contract teachers who are lucky enough to be paid salaries and enjoy full basic benefits like in Cua Lo town is not much.
For example, in Quynh Luu district, there are currently 9 contract teachers at the secondary level. They all graduated from the university of education and were recruited by the People's Committee of Quynh Luu district to teach and pay social insurance, of which the person with the longest working time is 18 years, the least is 12 years.
During their work, despite having many achievements in teaching, training excellent students and being recognized for their professional capacity, they have only received a salary of 4.9 million VND/month since the beginning of 2023.
Before that, they only received a salary with a coefficient of 1.78 (the salary received was 85% of the college level), no seniority allowance, no salary increase according to the current salary policy of the State and no teaching allowance. Of course, these teachers are not eligible for promotion or appointment.
In Nghi Loc district due to the situationteacher shortageThe situation is so serious that even at the primary level, there are times when schools do not have enough teachers to teach, and the principals have to be called in to teach directly. To help schools overcome difficulties, in recent years, Nghi Loc district has allocated nearly 10 billion VND from its annual budget to pay nearly 270 teachers under contract at schools with a salary of 4.7 million VND/person/month.
However, payment in the coming time will be difficult if the province continues to direct salary payment according to Decree No. 111 and Decision No. 4431/QD-UBND dated December 28, 2023 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on the assignment of employees and contract workers in public service units that are not self-sufficient in regular expenditure.
Mr. Nguyen Van Thong - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nghi Loc district said: "Until this February, we still pay salaries to these teachers according to regulations, but in the near future we do not know how to handle it if the province issues a temporary suspension document. That will greatly affect the school's activities because the number of contract teachers paid by the district in Nghi Loc district is very large. Meanwhile, the school's revenue is very limited, not enough to pay teachers' salaries."
Regarding the issue of teachers in schools, in recent years, the Nghe An Education Department has sent many documents to the Ministry of Education and Training, the Ministry of Home Affairs and related departments and branches because Nghe An is currently one of the localities with the most teacher shortage in the country with about 6,000 teachers. The lack of increased staffing combined with the need to streamline staffing has made school operations face many difficulties.
In fact, in 2024, after Notice No. 1117 - TB/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on the assignment of staff in 2024, the units under the Department of Education and Training reduced from 5,703 staff (in 2023) to 5,513 staff (in 2024), reducing 190 staff to ensure the streamlining rate.
However, due to the increase in the number of classes and students and the current number of people being more than 5,630, the Education sector has not been able to streamline as announced. Afterwards, the Department of Education and Training has submitted 3 documents to the competent authorities to request the reduction in the number of staff to ensure teaching and learning in schools.
Another problem at present is that Nghe An is lacking thousands of teachers, but there are also thousands of long-term contract teachers and newly graduated pedagogical students who have difficulty finding jobs or entering the payroll because there are no payroll quotas. This leads to a waste of labor and the risk of "bleeding" good teachers and students, because they will seek opportunities in other provinces and cities.
A teacher who has just graduated with honors in Pedagogy and is currently working as a contract teacher at a secondary school in Vinh city said: “After graduating, I thought I would be able to settle down at a school near my home. But in reality, there are not many opportunities for us and the contract work by the period or year can hardly guarantee that we can stay long-term.”
On December 6, 2023, the Central Organizing Committee issued Decision No. 2392-QD/BTCTW to add 2,187 public preschool and general education positions from the 2023-2024 school year to Nghe An province.
Accordingly, the preschool sector will have 1,352 additional positions; the primary sector will have 369 additional positions; the secondary sector will have 441 additional positions and the high school sector will have 25 additional positions.
Previously, at the beginning of this school year, the Department of Education and Training coordinated with the Department of Home Affairs to advise the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee and the Provincial People's Committee to propose that the Central Government supplement Nghe An with 6,600 positions to ensure enough teachers to teach according to the 2018 General Education Program.
Currently, the Provincial Party Standing Committee has also issued a document agreeing in principle to the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council the allocation of 2,187 additional positions in public preschool and general education.