Resolving difficulties for the Education sector in the new context - Part 1: The recurring shortage of teachers
On the eve of the new school year, the shortage of teachers in many schools in the province has made it difficult for schools to arrange and plan their teaching schedules. Meanwhile, transferring teachers from places with surplus to places with shortage or teaching in inter-schools will not be as convenient as in previous years because the scale of schools in a commune has shrunk...
Content:My Ha - Tien Hung;Technique: Nam Phong • 11/09/2025
On the eve of the new school year, the shortage of teachers in many schools in the province has made it difficult for schools to arrange and plan their teaching schedules. Meanwhile, transferring teachers from places with surplus to places with shortage or teaching in inter-schools will not be as convenient as in previous years because the scale of schools in a commune has shrunk...
Nghi Van Secondary School needs contract teachers for Math, Physics, IT, and Art for the 2025-2026 school year. Please share with everyone... These are messages sent by Mr. Nguyen Dinh Hai - Principal of Nghi Van Secondary School (Van Kieu commune) to many groups of teachers, students, and some professional groups... to ask for help recruiting teachers when the new school year is very close.
However, despite the high demand and not enough teachers to recruit, in many cases, school principals still refuse to accept applications because they feel sorry for the teachers: In the first semester of this school year, the school still has a budget to support contract teachers allocated from the beginning of the year. However, the payment of only 4 million VND/month for teachers who live 30-40 km from the school will not be enough for gas and living expenses. The school's wish is to recruit retired teachers or teachers who live near the school, reducing travel costs.
Nghi Van Secondary School is located in a difficult area, at the end of Nghi Loc district (old). In preparation for the new school year, since the beginning of August, the school has sent a document to the Department of Education and Training, the People's Committee of Van Kieu commune requesting to add more teachers.
According to the school's statistics, this year the school has 1,029 students, with 23 classes. To ensure enough teachers according to the regulation of 1.9 teachers/class, the school needs 44 teachers. Meanwhile, in reality, the school only has 18 teachers, lacking 26 teachers and not enough teachers to do the work of homeroom teachers.
Speaking more about this, the school principal said: For more than 10 years, Nghi Loc district (old) has not had a staff for junior high school teachers, so the school has not been able to add more staff. To ensure teachers in class, in previous years the district would transfer teachers or provide funds for the school to contract teachers or pay extra hours for teachers to increase their classes. This year, up to this point, we still have not had a suitable calculation. For now, we are still encouraging old contract teachers to stay and work with the school. In addition, the principal and vice principal will also teach extra classes to supplement the missing classes. The difficulty at our school is that it is far from the center, commuting and living costs are high. Therefore, teachers from far away will not be interested. Meanwhile, the local resources are not much because the salary paid to contract teachers is very low.
The lack of teachers also puts Tam Son Primary and Secondary School (Nhan Hoa Commune) in an awkward situation when the school is forced to transfer primary school teachers to teach secondary school subjects such as English, Chemistry, and Biology. In addition, the school is lacking History, Geography, and Literature teachers.
Previously, Tam Son Primary and Secondary School was a multi-level school with only 9 classes (including 5 primary classes and 4 secondary classes). Due to the small class size and lack of teachers in many different subjects, the arrangement of teachers was difficult.
Entering the new school year, talking to reporters of Nghe An Newspaper and Radio and Television, Mr. Le Kim Cuong - Vice Principal in charge was still worried when saying: We have proposed to the department and the commune government. However, I have not had an answer yet, I do not know what plan the commune has to support the school.
Through discussion, the school principal also shared that although they had to transfer primary school teachers to teach secondary school, fortunately these teachers all studied the right major. The current problem is that due to the staffing at the primary level, they have to teach 23 periods/week. Meanwhile, the regulation at the secondary level is only 19 periods/week and teachers who want to complete their tasks have to teach many extra periods. In other subjects, the school has to arrange for teachers to teach part-time, which is contrary to their training major, so it is difficult to meet the quality standards.
The situation at Tam Son Primary and Secondary School is also happening at many other schools in Nhan Hoa commune. Regarding this issue, Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc - Head of the Department of Culture and Society said: In our area, there are 4 secondary schools, basically all schools are lacking teachers. To have enough teachers to teach, we hope the province will soon have instructions to have a plan to recruit and supplement teachers for schools. In addition, in the immediate future, the lack of teachers has the only solution to arrange teachers to teach in inter-schools so that "where there is a small shortage, support where there is a large shortage".
Teacher shortages are occurring at many levels of education in the province. At the conference of primary school principals recently held by the Department of Education and Training in mid-August, Mr. Nguyen Hong Hoa - Head of the Primary Education Department reported specific statistics of each ward and commune in the province and assessed that currently at the primary level, "the ratio of teachers/classes has a large difference, a serious imbalance"...
Through data analysis, it is also shown that currently, the whole province has 8 primary schools that do not have enough 1 teacher/class ratio, such as Bao Nam 2 Primary Ethnic Minority Boarding School (Huu Kiem Commune) has 10 classes but only 7 teachers, lacking more than 9 people. Muong Long 1 Primary Ethnic Minority Boarding School (Muong Long Commune) has 15 classes but only 12 teachers, lacking 13 people. Duc Thanh Primary School (Binh Minh Commune) has 29 classes but only 24 teachers, lacking 21 people, Ho Tong Thoc Primary School (Dong Thanh Commune) has 35 classes but only 34 teachers, lacking more than 20 teachers. In addition, there are more than 30 schools with a teacher ratio ranging from only more than 1 teacher/class to 1.38 teachers/class, while according to regulations, it must ensure 1.5 teachers/class.
Talking to Mr. Cao Tien Thanh - Head of the Department of Culture and Society of Quynh Mai ward (the locality with the highest shortage of primary school teachers in the province), he said: Currently, the ratio of primary school teachers in our ward is 1.19 teachers/class and is 23 people short of the provincial norm. At the remaining 2 levels, preschool and primary school, there is also a shortage of 21 people, making it very difficult for schools to organize teaching, especially teaching 2 sessions/day. Transferring between schools is also not favorable because the shortage of teachers occurs in all schools.
At the secondary level, in addition to the shortage of teachers and the lack of staff according to regulations, there is also a situation of local surplus - shortage of teachers, inadequacies in the subject structure, the ratio of teachers in the classroom is in a state of surplus in some places and shortage in others. Specifically, in Ky Son district (old), while Na Ngoi Secondary School for Ethnic Minority Students has a teacher ratio of 3.0 teachers/class, in Muong Xen town Secondary School it is 0.92 teachers/class. Or in Quynh Luu district (old), while An Hoa Secondary School has a teacher ratio of 1.94 teachers/class; Quynh My Secondary School has 2.13 teachers/class, in Quynh Tan Secondary School there is only 0.8 teachers/class. Right in Vinh city (old), Vinh Tan Secondary School has only 1.27 teachers/class, in Phuc Tho Secondary School it is 2.31 teachers/class, Nghi Xuan Secondary School has 1.83 teachers/class.
Although the distribution of secondary school teachers among schools is not uniform, the current problem is that the transfer of teachers between schools after the implementation of the 2-level local government has not been specifically guided. Therefore, solutions that have been implemented quite effectively by localities in the past, such as arranging teachers to teach in inter-schools, transferring and balancing teachers between communes, etc., have not been implemented. This also makes the already difficult problem of a shortage of more than 4,000 teachers in Nghe An even more difficult.
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* Home
* Part 2: "Marching and lining up"
* Part 3: Efforts to adapt flexibly
*Final episode: Upholding responsibility and dedicating oneself
