In the 2025 - 2026 school year, Lao Cai province will have 1,040 schools and educational institutions with more than 465,000 students. Although the units have simultaneously welcomed students to school, the shortage of teachers has caused many difficulties in teaching and learning activities.
Lung Vai Secondary School has 263 students with 8 classes and often lacks English teachers. This is a special subject, cannot be taught concurrently, so the temporary solution is to "borrow" teachers from primary school. However, the number of increased urine sections is only at the minimum level.
Meanwhile, Ban Qua Secondary School lacks Chemistry and Information Technology teachers. The school is forced to mobilize teachers from neighboring schools to support teaching.
Not only a shortage of human resources, attracting and retaining teachers to work long-term in the highlands is still a difficult problem.
Ms. Hoang Thi Ngan - Principal of Vu A Dinh Primary Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities said: "The school has 25 classes but only 31 teachers are in charge of the class, of which 3 are seconded officials from other places. Although the conditions for facilities and public housing have been more favorable than before, many teachers are still hesitant because of difficult roads and distance from their families.
According to the Department of Home Affairs of Lao Cai province, in the past 5 - 6 years, teacher recruitment has become increasingly difficult. If before, a position had dozens of applications, now many subjects do not have candidates.
There were even years when Lao Cai province opened 1,200 targets but only recruited 1/3 of the number. Many young teachers, although admitted, do not accept jobs because they have better options in the lowland provinces.
Mr. Luyen Huu Chung - Deputy Director in charge of the Lao Cai Department of Education and Training shared: "This is the first school year that the province has implemented the two-level government model while the shortage of teachers has not improved. We have advised the Provincial People's Committee to allow contracts, secondment, and guest lecturers to meet teaching needs in the new school year".
According to the plan, the expected number of contracts includes 242 preschool teachers, 532 primary school teachers, 849 secondary school teachers and 292 high school teachers.
At primary school level, the biggest demand is teachers teaching culture (278), followed by English (124) and IT (62). For secondary school, many subjects are lacking such as Math (125), Literature (112), English (92) and IT (68). High school level also needs to supplement Math (51), Literature (44), English (34) and many other subjects.
In the future, when signing contracts with nearly 2,000 teachers, it will contribute to ensuring the stability of education and meeting the learning needs of students in the area, emphasized the leader of the Department of Education and Training of Lao Cai province.
