Why is the education sector in Nghe An struggling to recruit students?
(Baonghean) - In recent years, pedagogy is no longer an attractive field of study, although the State still has preferential policies on tuition support. This is also the reason why this year's enrollment season, pedagogical schools in the province are still "cautiously" enrolling students, although the total quota set by the Ministry of Education and Training for the Pedagogy major has increased by more than 30%.
Struggling to make a living
Graduated from the College of Preschool Education and used to teach at a private preschool in Vinh city, but after 3 years of graduation, Nguyen Thuy Anh has settled down with a management job at a coffee shop. Thuy Anh also said that after graduation, only more than half of the students in the class stick with the profession, the rest work part-time jobs and few think of returning to their old jobs.
I used to love teaching and wanted to stick with it for a long time. But when I graduated and started teaching, I realized that it was a very hard job and I had to endure a lot of pressure, especially when working at a non-public school.
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| Foreign language class of pedagogical students. Photo: My Ha |
Not only preschool teachers, some teachers at vocational schools are also struggling to make a living with their profession.
I have been working in the Welding Technology Department for 15 years, with a salary coefficient of level 4, but my current salary is only 5 million VND. In fact, the current salary is very low, even lower than that of new graduates because their income can be from 8 to 10 million VND/month.
Due to low income, in recent years, recruiting teachers for Yen Thanh Technical College has encountered many difficulties, although the school has had its own preferential policies such as recruiting excellent graduates directly into the payroll, arranging extra classes so that teachers can increase their income. Currently, the school is short of 15 teachers and the risk may continue because many teachers have submitted their job applications and then not returned.
The school’s policy has been implemented for 4 years, but only 2/8 applications have been accepted. This could be due to low salaries, or because Yen Thanh is not as developed as the central area or the city, so teachers want to find other environments with more opportunities for development.”
A paradox in vocational schools today is that graduates can earn 2 or 3 times more than teachers. For this reason, many teachers leave their profession to work for businesses or go abroad as highly skilled workers.
At the Vietnam-Germany College, from 130 teachers, the number of teachers has decreased by more than 20 in the past 3 years; there are even teachers who have been on the payroll and recognized as good teachers but still quit their jobs.
During the training process, the school always focuses on nurturing dedicated and skilled students to create a source for the school. However, many students are still not interested. Should there be preferential policies for this group so that vocational school teachers can work with peace of mind and ensure a minimum living standard?
No mass recruitment
In 2019, the Ministry of Education and Training assigned more than 46,000 quotas to the Pedagogy sector, an increase of more than 30% compared to the previous year. At the online conference of the Ministry of Education and Training on the National High School Exam and university and college admissions in 2019, a representative of the Department of Higher Education also said that there were many reasons for the increase in pedagogy quotas.
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| English class of students at Pedagogical Practice School. Photo courtesy of My Ha |
One of the important reasons is that the country is currently short of about 75,000 teachers, mainly at preschool and primary levels. Therefore, the increase in quota will be “anticipated” in the next few years, when the demand for teachers in localities is increasing.
Compared to the whole country, Nghe An is also the “cradle” of Pedagogy training with 2 universities and 1 college. However, while the demand for Pedagogy graduates nationwide is increasing, in Nghe An, in recent years, enrollment in Pedagogy has encountered many difficulties, even at traditional universities like Vinh University.
In fact, every year, although the quota for Pedagogy majors is not much, many majors do not meet their quota. In Nghe An Pedagogical College alone, majors such as Geography Pedagogy, History Pedagogy, Literature Pedagogy, and Mathematics Pedagogy are almost eliminated.
Faced with this difficulty, although this year the national quota increased, schools in Nghe An are very cautious in recruiting students for Pedagogy majors.
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| Pedagogical schools are cautious in enrollment. Photo: Archive |
This year, our school was allowed by the Ministry to increase its enrollment quota by 30%. However, we only enroll students based on actual needs and mainly enroll students in the two majors of preschool and primary education, which are in high demand. There are almost no quotas for secondary school level.”
At Vinh University, this year the school opened a new Pedagogy major code: Natural Pedagogy. However, the school did not increase the total quota for Pedagogy.
We have conducted surveys in the North Central provinces and especially the three provinces of Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Thanh Ho and accordingly this year the target will remain the same to avoid teacher surplus in the coming years."
The fact that schools are not massively recruiting students for the Pedagogy major also shows that the output for the Pedagogy major in the coming years will still be very difficult. And to solve this difficult problem, the smart solution is for schools to focus on investing in quality instead of quantity. At the same time, gradually improve the effectiveness of training, link training with recruitment needs and closely follow the development plans of each locality.
