There is still a shortage of teachers
According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), by the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the whole country will have nearly 1.28 million teachers from kindergarten to high school, an increase of nearly 22,000 people compared to the previous school year. However, the shortage of teachers is still common in many localities. Many places, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, are facing many difficulties in solving the problem of teacher shortage.
Since 2022, the Ministry of Education and Training has coordinated with the Ministry of Home Affairs to report to the Central Government to supplement 65,980 teacher positions for localities.
However, by the end of the first semester of the 2024-2025 school year, the whole country still has about 60,000 unrecruited positions while there is a shortage of more than 120,000 teachers at all levels of public preschool and general education. Thus, the number of teachers recruited is very low compared to the assigned staffing quota.
According to many localities, teacher shortage is the problem that wards and communes are currently facing the most. The basic cause was pointed out as difficulties and problems in recruitment organization.
Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu - Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City - said that the city's education sector is facing difficulties due to the lack of clear decentralization in recruitment. If this is not clear, when using, mobilizing, and rotating teachers from one ward or commune to another, it will be a difficult problem in the coming time.
Empowering teacher recruitment for the education sector
The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued Document No. 4798/BGDDT-NGCBQLGD to the People's Committees of provinces/cities directly under the Central Government on resolving a number of difficulties and problems of localities in the field of education and training when implementing local government at two levels, including content related to teacher recruitment for the new school year.
Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training requests the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to consider and decide on the decentralization, authorization, and assignment of the Department of Education and Training to preside over the recruitment, reception, transfer, secondment, and transfer of teachers and staff in educational institutions in the province.
For other tasks in the field of education and training, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee consider and assign the Department of Education and Training to preside over and advise the Provincial People's Committee and the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee to specify the decentralization and delegation in accordance with the actual conditions of the locality...
The Ministry of Education and Training also requested the Provincial People's Committee to continue directing the recruitment of teachers and solutions to ensure the staffing and staffing of preschool and general education teachers. In case the recruitment has not been carried out, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee consider, allocate funding and sign labor contracts or mobilize, second, and arrange inter-school and inter-level teams to ensure enough staff for the new school year.
Mr. Pham Ngoc Thuong - Permanent Deputy Minister of Education and Training - suggested that when assigning the recruitment of teachers to the Department of Education and Training, the whole country would have only 34 councils, taking exams in 1 day and each candidate would have "nothing to wish". If wish 1 is not met, wish 2 can be considered for admission to commune B. At that time, the admission opportunities for bachelor's degrees in pedagogical subjects will increase...
Proposal for principals to be recruited
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - former Director of the Department of Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Training - supports the policy of assigning recruitment rights to the education sector. However, Mr. Vinh said that a new school management model should be applied, taking the community's supervision, giving the principal and the board of directors the autonomy to proactively recruit teachers. The local state management agency at the higher level only participates in certain matters and is monitored and supervised.
Teacher recruitment requires skills, knowledge and objectivity, democracy, integrity and responsibility to explain the transparency that higher education management agencies may not meet. Therefore, it is necessary to boldly give recruitment rights to principals. However, for schools that are not qualified to organize recruitment themselves, the education sector at all levels will need support, said Mr. Vinh, noting that recruitment is not simple, not every principal is capable of organizing recruitment exams.
Therefore, he recommended that the education sector needs to have specific instructions, roadmaps, accompanying instructions, and supervision of recruitment of schools to ensure that this process is open, transparent, in accordance with legal regulations, and ensures quality.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Ha Cong Minh - Principal of Chieng Noi Primary School (Son La) - said that when assigning recruitment rights to the education sector, especially principals, it will reduce intermediaries and make it convenient for schools.
"As before, the district brought teachers back, and schools had to retrain them in their skills despite interviews.The principal is a person who knows the skills of teachers, and if given the right to recruit, it will be very convenient.However, recruitment is not easy, it requires coordination with communes and authorities at all levels" - Mr. Minh said.
