Early guarantee of benefits for long-term contract teachers in Yen Thanh

Waiting for recruitment

Up to this point, Yen Thanh is one of the districts with the largest number of contract teachers in the province. Therefore, right after the policy of recruiting special teachers was introduced by the Ministry of Home Affairs, all teachers in the area were looking forward to it and considered it a "unique" opportunity for teachers to be officially recruited.

After more than half a year of waiting, on June 25, the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district issued a recruitment notice with 144 positions, including 2 admission positions (1 preschool, 1 primary school) and 142 recruitment positions (including: 96 cultural teachers, 25 English teachers, 11 IT teachers, 10 Team Leader teachers).

The shortage of English and Cultural subject teachers at primary level has been happening in Yen Thanh district for many years. Photo: PV.

Previously, through review, Yen Thanh district still had 308 teachers under contract. Of which, there were 78 secondary school teachers (45 of whom were transferred to contract preschool teachers according to Circular 09), 90 primary school teachers (24 of whom were transferred to contract preschool teachers according to Circular 09) and 140 preschool teachers (not including 69 people transferred from secondary and primary schools). However, after 2 days of posting recruitment information, only 61 teachers were eligible for special recruitment, including 46 cultural teachers, 7 IT teachers, and 8 foreign language teachers.

From the time they received the special recruitment notice until the results were out, many teachers with long-term contracts in Yen Thanh district were extremely disappointed and expressed their opposition.

Talking to us, Mr. Ho Sy H. (born in 1970), who has nearly 20 years of experience as a Physical Education teacher at Hop Thanh Primary School, said: I returned from the army and then went to study at the College of Physical Education and Sports. After graduating, I signed a contract to work as a Physical Education teacher at Hop Thanh Primary School from 2000 to present. Over the past 20 years, although the salary for contract teachers has been very low, from a few hundred thousand to less than 2 million VND, I am still dedicated and committed to the profession. For many years, there have been students who have won prizes at Phu Dong Sports Festivals. Currently, I am also studying part-time at a university to get a university degree.

School dismissal time for primary school students in Yen Thanh district. Photo: PV

With many years of dedication and enthusiasm for his work, teacher Ho Sy H. also affirmed that he is qualified to recruit special teachers and considers this his last chance because he is 50 years old this year. However, when he received the recruitment information from the district People's Committee, he was really disappointed because this year the district has no quota for PE teachers. Adding to this, he said: "I know that dozens of schools in Yen Thanh district have not had PE teachers for many years and are all using contract teachers. So why doesn't the district recruit more PE teachers at this time when there are still extra quotas for special teachers?

Is it because PE is not valued, even though at school we still work and contribute like normal teachers. The difference is that our salaries are lower and currently they are not enough for us to cover our living expenses. In addition, even though we have worked for 20 years, we do not have seniority money, no allowances, and do not receive annual salary increases according to regulations?

The district has 114 quotas but in reality only 61 special teachers are recruited. Meanwhile, many teachers who wish to be recruited are not recruited. Before submitting the application for the establishment, the district should review the entire team of contract teachers and the number of subject teachers to make sure they are sufficient, because currently not only cultural teachers but also music and physical education teachers in schools are in great shortage.

Teacher Phan Thi T. (Music teacher at Xuan Thanh Primary School) has a 13-year contract.

With the desire to be specially recruited, after the district announced the recruitment, teacher Ho Sy H. and teacher Phan Thi T. hastily spent nearly 2 million VND to register for a certificate class for the General Team Leader in Vinh to have the opportunity to be recruited to another position. However, before receiving the certificate, the district had ended the application period (from the time of announcement to the end of application period was only 2 days), so now the certificate has to be wrapped up and has no chance to be used. Some other teachers who are currently preschool teachers are also waiting to be specially recruited in this period, especially those who were transferred from junior high school and primary school teachers. However, only a few teachers with primary school majors meet the set criteria.

Regarding the recruitment announcement of Yen Thanh District People's Committee, many teachers said that there were many unclear contents in the recruitment process. Specifically, if the district's culture teachers, English teachers, and IT teachers only required college degrees, the teachers in charge of the Youth Union required university degrees. This is unreasonable, because before July 1, 2020, the teacher standard for primary school teachers was still college degrees.

Prioritize solving the problem of lack of cultural teachers

Working with relevant departments in Yen Thanh district on this issue, representatives of the departments all affirmed: The demand for the rights of 308 teachers is completely legitimate. However, at this time, Yen Thanh district is prioritizing the recruitment of cultural teachers to ensure the required number of classes according to regulations.

In fact, the problem of a shortage of primary school teachers but a local surplus of teachers has been going on for many years in Yen Thanh district and has greatly affected the quality of teaching and learning in schools. To solve the problem of teacher shortage, in the past 2 years, Yen Thanh district has transferred teachers every year (from secondary school to primary school), but the shortage of teachers has not been completely resolved.

In recent years, the local shortage of teachers has made it difficult to arrange teachers in the district. Photo: PV

With the current teacher structure, Mr. Tran Xuan Tinh - Head of the Department of Education and Training said: "The 2020 - 2021 school year is the first year to replace textbooks for first graders, so we need to arrange enough 1.5 teachers/class to organize teaching 2 sessions/day. Grades 2, 3, 4, 5, if studying 1 session/day, also need to arrange enough 1.2 teachers/class. In addition, the district also needs teachers of English, IT and other gifted subjects.

In summary, if we balance according to the minimum needs, the primary level lacks 226 teachers, including 99 cultural teachers, 92 English teachers (enough to teach 4 periods/week), 17 IT teachers (enough for 1 teacher to teach 2 schools) and 32 teachers of the remaining subjects. Due to the shortage of too many teachers, we prioritize recruiting enough cultural teachers because at the primary level, a cultural teacher can take on many subjects (including gifted subjects)".

This situation may also continue in the next school year, because according to statistics for the 2020-2021 school year, Yen Thanh district has 820 primary school classes. But currently, the number of cultural teachers in class is only 779 teachers/820 classes, a ratio of only 0.95 teachers/class. In addition, there is a shortage of teachers in all subjects when the entire primary school has only 14 Music teachers (of which 1 is the Team Leader), 44 Art teachers (of which 6 are the Team Leaders) and 12 Physical Education teachers (of which 2 are the Team Leaders).

Regarding the guarantee of benefits for contract teachers, Yen Thanh district also said that the whole district has 308 teachers who are qualified to recruit special teachers but the recruitment quota is only 142 people. Therefore, recruiting 100% of teachers is impossible.

The lack of teachers makes it difficult to organize teaching at the primary level. Many schools find it difficult to organize 2 sessions/day with enough periods and cannot implement the 10-year English program. Photo: PV

It is known that Yen Thanh is one of the districts with the largest number of contract teachers in the province. There are many cases where the contracts are not signed in accordance with regulations and there have been inspection and examination teams. Based on this reality, from 2015 to now, through recruitment rounds, the district has gradually recruited the above contracts into the payroll and into contracts permitted by the State. Of which, there are 62 preschool teachers, 45 primary school teachers, 8 teachers working in the primary school team, 21 staff (preschool, primary school, secondary school) and 2 secondary school teachers (recruited with excellent university degrees, aiming to create a source of key teachers for the industry, approved by the Provincial People's Committee on the structure and job positions).

In particular, the district has recruited 258 contract preschool teachers according to Circular 09 and Decree 06/CP. Of these, 24 are contract teachers at the primary level, and 45 are contract teachers at the secondary level transferred to teach preschool.

Recess of students at Hop Thanh Primary School (Yen Thanh). Photo: PV

Looking back 5 years ago, the recruitment of district contract teachers to contract preschool teachers according to Circular 09 and Decree 06/CP, although disadvantageous for some cultural teachers (at primary and secondary levels), was considered a practical solution, resolving the deadlock for many teachers who had been under district contracts for many years. Thanks to that, many teachers who were under district contracts with a salary of just over 1 million VND/month were raised to 5.6 million VND/month and enjoyed allowances, seniority and other benefits like a teacher who had been on the payroll and enjoyed full benefits as a civil servant.

Explaining why the recruitment was quite rushed when from the announcement to the "finalization" of the application was only 2 days (from June 25 to 26), Mr. Hoang Danh Truyen - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee explained: According to the revised Law on Education, from July 1, 2020, the standard qualification requirement for primary school teachers is university.

Therefore, during the implementation process, the District People's Committee has conducted special recruitment to submit to the Department of Home Affairs for recognition of the recruitment results before July 1, 2020, in order to create conditions for teachers with college qualifications to be recruited to suit the job position to be specially considered for the establishment. Particularly for the position of Team Leader, according to the process, it is still necessary to practice professional capacity testing and organize after July 1, so the district uses the criteria of having a university degree to comply with the new standards of the Education Law and up to now, there have been no special recruitment results submitted to the Department of Home Affairs for appraisal.

During the process of recruiting special teachers, all teachers who meet the criteria are recruited directly, including 12 people who are priority subjects (10 children of war invalids, 1 child of sick soldiers and 1 child of a person infected with toxic chemicals). We hope to share with the remaining subjects because in the remaining 247 cases, 195 people have contracts according to Circular 09 and they have the same regime and benefits as regular teachers. Of the 52 teachers who have not been given special treatment, 10 will continue to be recruited to the position of Team Leader in the coming time. We will also find a solution for some teachers who are junior high school teachers who are teaching preschool, perhaps creating conditions for them to study for an additional primary school certificate to be qualified to return to teaching primary school because there are too many redundant junior high school teachers.

Mr. Hoang Danh Truyen - Vice Chairman of Yen Thanh District People's Committee

With the remaining 42 teachers, the district has also grasped the circumstances and aspirations of each teacher. Therefore, to ensure the rights of the teachers, Mr. Phan Van Tuyen - Chairman of the People's Committee of Yen Thanh district said: The aspirations of the teachers are completely legitimate and the district will learn from experience to have appropriate solutions.

In the immediate future, each subject and each job position of teachers will be reviewed. On that basis, of the remaining 71 positions that have been approved by the Provincial People's Committee for recruitment but have not been recruited, the District People's Committee will propose to the competent authority to adjust the structure and job positions to be recruited for special recruitment according to Official Dispatch 5378/BNV-CCVC, ensuring the rights of the remaining district contract teachers.