Hai Duong overcomes teacher shortage

Mobilize, contract teachers, teach extra hours...

In the 2023-2024 school year, Kim Lien Kindergarten (Kim Thanh) has nearly 700 children, with more than 50 staff and teachers. The school is still short of 10 teachers.

While waiting for recruitment, the school will prioritize arranging enough 2 teachers for the 5-year-old class and the kindergarten class. The 3-year-old and 4-year-old classes basically have just over 1 teacher/class. These teachers must also take on the duties of assistant teachers, which is much harder. For example, when the teacher goes to get lunch and there is no one to look after the class, they must ask the teacher from the next class to look after it. In case the teacher is sick or on maternity leave, a 5-year-old teacher or a kindergarten teacher must be arranged to replace them. If there are not enough teachers, it will more or less affect the quality of education and child care.

Teaching more hours, contracting teachers or encouraging retired teachers to continue teaching are the optimal solutions that schools are implementing.

In the 2023-2024 school year, Cam Doai Primary School (Cam Giang) has 530 students in 18 classes. To meet the required number of teachers, the school is still short of 6 teachers. Of which, 5 are lacking cultural teachers and 1 is lacking English teacher. To ensure the staff, the school has signed contracts with 2 retired teachers to have enough homeroom teachers; and signed contracts with 2 cultural and English teachers. However, the budget to pay for contract teachers is not easy.

Ms. Hoang Thi Huyen, Principal of Cam Doai Primary School, said: “The lack of teachers has a significant impact on the implementation of the new general education program. However, the school will try to find contract teachers, and flexibly arrange and assign them. Staff and teachers must support each other to overcome this,” Ms. Huyen said.

Similarly, Hien Thanh Secondary School (Kinh Mon) has nearly 800 students, an increase of 3 classes compared to the previous school year. With 29 existing staff and teachers, the school still lacks 9 teachers. Teachers are lacking in many subjects implementing the new general education program such as physics, biology, chemistry, etc.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc, Principal of Hien Thanh Secondary School, said that the school will continue to contract with 1 retired teacher and 1 IT teacher. In addition, staff and teachers will have to teach more lessons, such as the Vice Principal will have to teach 5-6 more lessons/week, some teachers will have to teach 8-9 more lessons/week.

District-level Departments of Education and Training also strengthen direction and have solutions to support schools such as mobilizing teachers from areas with surplus to areas with shortage; inter-school contracts; finding sources of contract teachers to introduce to schools...

In Kinh Mon town, many schools are having to contract teachers to teach between schools, such as An Phu Secondary School contracting with an art teacher from An Phu Primary School; Thai Thinh Secondary School contracting with a natural science teacher from Pham Su Manh Secondary School...

A representative of the Kim Thanh District Department of Education and Training said that they have reviewed and transferred 38 teachers from schools with surplus to schools with shortages. Schools in the district are currently contracting with 22 retired teachers. The department is also consulting to sign contracts with 17 teachers and staff, and is directing schools to encourage teachers to teach more hours but must comply with regulations.

Difficult recruitment source

There is a shortage of teachers at all levels of education in the province. To overcome this situation, the province is constantly recruiting, but the source is very difficult.

For example, Kim Lien Kindergarten (Kim Thanh) is recruiting 10 teachers but up to this point there has only been 1 application. Last year the school also recruited teachers but no applications were received. The school wants to contract teachers but also has no resources. Similarly, Cam Doai Primary School is recruiting 6 teachers but only has 2 applications. Last year, the school recruited 3 teachers but no applications were received. Hien Thanh Secondary School also knows that there is only 1 application while the school is recruiting 4 teachers.

According to the plan to organize the recruitment of teachers and staff of public educational institutions in the education and training sector in 2023, the deadline for submitting registration forms is September 8, 2023. Most of the applications will be submitted through the District Department of Internal Affairs, but at this time the number of applications is still very small. Kim Thanh, Cam Giang and Kinh Mon are the three localities that need to recruit many teachers. Of which, Kim Thanh has the highest recruitment demand in the province with 190 positions, but up to this point, the Kim Thanh District Department of Internal Affairs has only received about 20 applications. Kinh Mon town needs to recruit 175 positions but has also received nearly 40 applications... It is forecasted that this year's recruitment source will be even more difficult than last year.

The representative of the Department of Education and Training said that continuously recruiting, proposing, solving preferential policies for teachers and calling for teacher contracts are solutions to solve the teacher shortage. The Department has also directed schools that are still lacking teachers to, in the immediate future, develop appropriate plans to increase working hours and implement teacher contracts according to regulations.

According to the Department of Education and Training, in 2023, district-level localities need to recruit nearly 1,300 teachers and staff for public educational institutions in the education and training sector. Of which, 95% are teacher quotas. Primary school has 595 quotas, preschool has 366 quotas, secondary school has 320 quotas, and continuing education has 16 quotas. High school alone recruits 56 quotas.