Shortage of 1,519 teachers
Regarding the teaching staff, the entire education sector has 14,110 teachers (13,698 on the payroll; 421 on contract).
According to Mr. Chau Tan Hong - Director of the Department of Education and Training of Soc Trang province, the education sector of the province is currently facing a serious shortage of teachers. According to the teacher quota, in the 2024 - 2025 school year, the number of teachers lacking compared to the quota is 1,519 teachers (616 teachers for preschool level; 383 teachers for primary level; 258 teachers for secondary level; 262 teachers for high school level). According to the assigned staff, in the 2024 - 2025 school year, the number of teachers lacking compared to the quota is 1,295.
"The shortage of teachers compared to the assigned staff and the standard is very high, causing difficulties in assigning, arranging and organizing the team to ensure the requirements of improving the quality of education," said Mr. Hong.
The Director of the Department of Education and Training of Soc Trang province said that the reason was that recruitment encountered many difficulties, did not meet actual requirements; and was entangled in regulations on decentralization, creating major barriers in recruitment.
Some public service units have no applicants or very few applicants, even some recruitment targets have only 1 candidate participating in the recruitment. Due to recruitment based on job positions, candidates often focus on registering for units near the city center according to their wishes or register in areas with preferential policies; units in remote areas or without preferential policies have very few applicants, leading to the situation where there is no recruitment in the necessary places.
“For example, in 2022, the provincial Department of Education and Training recruited 72 positions; there were 114 candidates applying but only 28 positions were recruited, including 1 case who quit after working for 1 month,” Mr. Hong cited.
According to Mr. Hong, another reason leading to the above situation is that there is no budget and spending for recruitment, causing difficulties in organizing recruitment.
"In 2022, the Department of Education and Training recruited 28 civil servants, but up to now, the expenses have not been paid or settled," Mr. Hong informed.
Mr. Hong said that there is still a situation where it is not allowed to recruit enough people in the assigned payroll and must be reduced to ensure the roadmap for streamlining the payroll. While the number of students is increasing according to the assigned quota, mechanically cutting down teachers will cause many difficulties for the education sector.
Director of the Department of Education and Training of Soc Trang province said that, in the immediate future, while waiting to recruit teachers according to the assigned payroll, the education sector will overcome this problem by solutions such as transferring teachers from places with surplus to places with shortage (according to subjects with surplus or shortage locally between units); organizing teachers to teach extra hours; professional contracts; guest teaching contracts...
"However, the transfer is only a temporary solution because the transferred teachers are still lacking compared to the norm and still have problems (teaching overtime)," said Mr. Hong.
Educational institutions are entitled to recruit civil servants.
The Director of the Department of Education and Training of Soc Trang province proposed that the People's Committee of Soc Trang province consider decentralizing the right to recruit civil servants to educational institutions that are public service units. Direct relevant sectors to advise on the level of expenditure and funding sources for recruitment. Consider streamlining teachers because the education sector is a special sector. Supplement funding to have a source to implement contracts or pay for overtime teaching costs due to a lack of teachers who have not been recruited yet.
At the meeting to discuss difficulties in implementing teacher recruitment for the 2024-2025 school year, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Soc Trang province Nguyen Van Khoi requested the Department of Education and Training to coordinate with relevant units to advise on recruitment and support policies to submit to the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and the Provincial People's Council to promptly overcome the shortage of teachers in the following school years, as well as create conditions for the province's teaching staff to feel secure in their work.
