Nghe An highlands 'thirsty' for English teachers

School without teachers

After more than 10 years working in the mountainous district, this summer, teacher NTN - a capable teacher at Tam Quang Secondary School (Tuong Duong) wrote a request to transfer her job. According to the school's principal, the main reason for this female teacher is due to family circumstances. Both the teacher and her husband are from the lowlands working in the mountainous district of Tuong Duong. Far from home, with young children and elderly parents at home, the teacher's wish is to return to her hometown to have conditions for her children to study and take care of her family.

Tam Quang Secondary School has 14 classes and 2 English teachers. Although the number of teachers does not meet the actual needs of the school, last school year, the school's teachers had to take on additional teaching jobs for elementary schools in the area. Although they were supported with extra money to teach more than the prescribed number of hours, many teachers were still not interested.

Speaking more about this, teacher Hoang Lien Son - Principal of Tam Quang Secondary School, said: When hearing the news that the English teacher asked to transfer her job, the school's Board of Directors was very worried because they did not know how to arrange enough teachers to teach the class next school year. The school had proposed to the Department of Education but did not know if there were teachers to supplement or not because the shortage of teachers was happening throughout the district.

Talking about the lack of English teachers, teacher Nguyen Hong Hoan - Principal of Tam Quang 1 Primary School (Tuong Duong) also expressed his concern because the new school year has begun but this is the second year the school is at risk of not having an English teacher: All English teachers at our school are teachers reinforced from other schools, including primary and secondary school teachers. However, this teacher also has to take on additional professional duties at the main school so he can only take care of a few classes.

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Last year, we prioritized teaching English to students in grades 3 and 4 who followed the new General Education Program. Meanwhile, students in grades 1 and 2 did not study because there were no teachers, and students in grade 5 studied according to the optional program, so they only had 2 periods/week.

Teacher Nguyen Hong Hoan - Principal of Tam Quang 1 Primary School (Tuong Duong)

According to the Principal of Tam Quang 1 Primary School, increasing the number of teachers to support schools lacking teachers only solves the immediate problem, but in the long run, it causes difficulties for teachers and schools: The school schedules and classes of the two schools are different, so we have to consider very carefully before arranging the timetable for teachers and students. Moreover, if there are local teachers, the teachers will be more attached to the students and know the abilities of each student to have a suitable teaching plan, Mr. Hoan added.

Difficult to recruit

A serious shortage of English teachers is occurring in Tuong Duong district in the 2024-2025 school year when the district currently has 36 primary and secondary schools but only 38 English teachers. Among these, there are 2 "blank" schools with English staffing, Tam Quang 1 Primary School and Luu Kien Primary School, 3 priority schools have 2 English teachers but this is not "sustainable" because it is expected that teachers will transfer from this school year. The remaining schools each have only 1 English teacher. Previously, from the end of 2022 until now, at least 3 teachers in Tuong Duong district have requested to transfer jobs. Among these cases, the salary increase is up to tens of millions of VND per year but is still not attractive enough to retain teachers.

Because the lack of English teachers greatly affects the teaching and learning of schools, this school year, Tuong Duong district is proposing to the Department of Home Affairs to recruit 8 more English teachers for both primary and secondary schools. However, this plan is difficult to implement because it is likely that there will be no applications. Speaking more about this, Mr. Thai Luong Thien - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district said: Since April, we have had a target of recruiting 4 English teachers but no applications have been received. Therefore, if there are more targets, the problem of not being able to recruit teachers is likely to continue.

According to the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Tuong Duong district, there are many reasons for not being able to recruit English teachers. One of the main reasons is that working, traveling and teaching conditions in the mountainous district are very difficult. Meanwhile, the demand for English teachers in the whole province is quite large and graduates have many opportunities to work in favorable areas or at English centers.

The worrying thing is that the demand for English teachers is not only lacking this year but also in the coming years. However, according to the survey, there are not many local students studying English pedagogy. Meanwhile, the number of students studying Primary Education is quite large, although primary teachers in mountainous districts are starting to be redundant because in recent years, districts have started to merge small schools and the number of classes is "shrinking".

The shortage and difficulty in recruiting English teachers is also happening in many other mountainous districts such as Que Phong and Ky Son. Mr. Lu Thanh Ha - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Que Phong district said: We are lacking 6 English teachers at primary level and 4 English teachers at secondary level. Recruitment is very difficult and there has never been a year when there are enough applications according to the set target. Even newly graduated students who are local do not return to Que Phong to teach because they have many job opportunities in the city. If this situation continues, in the new school year we will continue to have to arrange teachers to teach inter-school, although this will be very difficult for teachers, students and the school.