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Teacher shortage explained: distance, salary, non-teaching assignments
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VietNamNet Bridge – The new school year began one month ago, but many HCM City schools lack enough teachers. At the same time, a lot of education school graduates cannot find jobs and must take positions outside their majors.


TP graduated from the philology faculty at HCM City Pedagogical University, but cannot become a teacher. The city’s authorities have assigned TP to work as a supervisor at a high school.

TP is not alone. A lot of other education school grads have no chance to teach.

According to Van Cong Sang, Head of Personnel for HCM City Education and Training Department, after two phases of recruiting teachers for general schools, 400 teachers have been left redundant. Of these, about 100 teachers have been assigned to work as supervisors or work in school laboratories.

In the past, university graduates always had to take the jobs assigned to them. Now the situation is quite different. “I have applied to teach at schools in Districts 3, 5 or 6. I will not take a job if I am assigned to work in the suburbs,” PPH, a newly graduated teacher, told Tuoi tre newspaper. “I would rather take a job at a private institution than a state-owned school in the suburbs. If I have to travel too far to get the school, the expenses on petrol alone will gobble up a half of my salary.”

The continuing education centre in Tan Binh District needed nine teachers for the new school year. One refused the position, and two others quit. Now the centre has only six new teachers.

Similarly, the HCM City Education and Training Department assigned four teachers to Cu Chi District’s Continuing Education Centre, none have arrived yet.

According to Van Cong Sang, teachers who reside permanently in HCM City will not work at schools located far from the city’s centre. Only teachers from other provinces are not choosy, but some have “local” accents, deemed unsuitable for teaching, therefore, they have been asked to stop teaching.

Many suburban schools complain that they do not have a stable workforce, because nearly all teachers wish to leave after two or three years. The schools in remote areas seriously lack teachers, because they cannot offer attractive wages or working conditions.

Before the new school year began, many teachers left their schools. H, a history teacher, explained that her home is in Tan Phu District and so she must travel a long distance to reach her school in Binh Chanh District. H observed that she must spend too much money on gas, while the lengthy travel does not allow her to have strong enough health to teach.

Inner city schools also complain that they have lost qualified teachers. Many left for private schools with higher wages and other preferences.

Ten years ago, HCM City had many redundant primary school teachers, but in the last two years, they have faced a shortage. As the result, schools must arrange classes with high numbers of students.



Source: Tuoi tre