VietNamNet Bridge - More than 500 teachers in Dak Lak province are in danger of losing their jobs. Many of them had to pay hundreds of millions of dong to local authorities for jobs with an income of VND1 million ($41) a month.


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By 2017, Krong Pak district hired 500 teachers to work under short term labor contracts



By 2017, Krong Pak district in the central province of Dak Lak hired 500 teachers to work under short-term labor contracts. 

The teachers had been working as seasonal workers and had not been recognized as regular members of the country’s teaching staff. Therefore, they could not receive salaries from the state. 

The bribes went to the pockets of high ranking officials, who had the jurisdiction to recruit teachers.

Asked why they paid so much money just to get a job with a surprisingly low salary, a teacher said he hoped the seasonal job would serve as a ‘launching pad’ allowing him to become an official civil servant in the future. 

Once he becomes a civil servant, he would receive higher pay and have a stable job.

Asked why they paid so much money just to get a job with a surprisingly low salary, a teacher said he hoped the seasonal job would serve as a ‘launching pad’ allowing him to become an official civil servant in the future. 

N. T. H, an arts teacher at a primary school in Krong Pak district, told reporters that he gave VND200 million to ‘a district leader’ in exchange for the job. The ‘district leader’ promised to help him become an official civil servant.

Only recently did H realize that the seasonal job would not lead to becoming a civil servant and he decided to claim the money back. However, he could not contact the district’s leader. 

Many other teachers admitted that they had paid big money for the job for the opportunity to become civil servants one day.

D. X. S, a primary school teacher in Phuoc An Town, said he understands that it is illegal to pay money to get a job.

“But you will never have opportunities if you don’t pay,” he explained. “Everyone complains about the low pay at this moment. But we hope we will have better and more stable jobs in the future. So we paid big amounts of money.”

H, a teacher in Vu Bon commune, said she gave the school headmaster VND100 million to get a teaching job at the school and the promise that she would become a civil servant after a number of years of working. 

“I had to borrow money from relatives and friends, and mortgage my assets for the loans,” she said.


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