VietNamNet Bridge - More than 500 teachers in Dak Lak province have been warned that their labor contract will end in April, while thousands of teachers in Gia Lai province have been told that their jobs will be cut. 


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Mr Tran Vu Luan, a teacher who has lost his job in Gia Lai



The teachers in Dak Lak said they are victims of ‘unfair treatment’ from local authorities. They went through many hardships over the years to fulfill their tasks but are now about to be jobless. 

The teachers had been working as seasonal workers and had not been recognized as regular members of the country’s teaching staff. They have been informed that district authorities will terminate their labor contracts in late April.

Authorities explained that cutting the labor force is a must because of oversupply.

The problem is so serious that Luu Binh Duong, a National Assembly deputy, called it ‘a deep wound to the entire national education system’.

In Gia Lai province, hundreds of teachers have been sacked since 2017.

The problem is so serious that Luu Binh Duong, a National Assembly deputy, called it ‘a deep wound to the entire national education system’.

After leaving Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Primary School in January 2018, Pham Thi Nhung, 25, in Ia Grai district, began working at a café. 

Tran Vu Luan, 25, became well known after local newspapers reported that he found a wallet with VND90 million inside and gave the money back to the owner.

He lost his job as a teacher at Hung Vuong Secondary School and had to leave for Pleiku City to look for a job.

In Ia Grai district alone, more than 100 teachers have been asked to stop working. In Chu Pu district, more than 200 teachers at 37 schools were also terminated.

Pham Van Dai, head of the Gia Lai district Education and Training Sub-department, said  the authorities had to suspend the labour contracts of hundreds of teachers though local schools still needed them. 

The number of working teachers was too high compared with the quota set by higher authorities, but the locality actually lacks teachers. 

Because of the teacher shortage, schools have to merge classes to form larger classes and ask official teachers to undertake more teaching hours.

Dai and other educators fear that once classes are merged, ethnic minority students will have to travel a long distance to reach classrooms. The dropout rate could then increase.

In related news, Dak Lak police have arrested a principal of a secondary school in the Central Highlands province, over allegations of misappropriated assets. A woman alleged that her family gave the principal VND300 million to ‘buy’ a teaching post for her daughter.


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