VietNamNet Bridge – Due to regulations on hiring civil service personnel, many general schools in Vietnam cannot recruit teachers despite high demand.

When Circular No 35 was issued in 2006, many general schools in urban areas appeared to have “more than enough” teachers.

However, while the total number of teachers exceeds the permitted level, the schools still lack teachers in some specific subjects.

The problem is that Circular 35 only stipulated the required number of teachers per class, while it did not stipulate the required number of teachers in every subject in school.

As a result, schools are not allowed to recruit new teachers to replace the ones who retire, if the total number of teachers of the schools is higher than that stipulated in Circular 35.

An educator pointed out that the problem is especially serious at secondary schools. Many teachers have few teaching hours a week, while others have up to 21 periods a week (higher than the required 19 periods).

He said that schools are seriously lacking teachers in chemistry, biology, music, fine arts, physical exercises and geography.

Some schools complain that they cannot run the national foreign language teaching program by 2020 because they cannot recruit teachers.

According to the Ninh Binh provincial education and training department, every class in local secondary schools has 2.24 teachers, higher than the required 1.9 as stipulated by the circular.

However, the excessive number only exists in math and literature subjects, while the schools lack teachers in social sciences.

As for primary education, the circular stipulates that every class must have 1.5 teachers if students have two learning shifts a day (in the morning and afternoon), and 1.2 teachers if students go to school either in the morning or afternoon.

Under the Circular’s requirements, Nghe An now has 1,800 teachers in excess. However, an official of the provincial education department warned that if 100 percent of the students can have two learning shifts a day as the province is striving for, the schools would need 14,600 teachers.

“In fact, the demand for primary school teachers is very high,” said Tran The Son of Nghe An Province’s Education and Training Department.

“If we can organize two learning shifts a day for 100 percent of students, the current number of employed teachers would not be enough,” he said.

Nguyen Thi Minh of the Ninh Binh Education and Training Department said that Circular No 35 had become “out of date”, urging the Ministry of Education and Training to work with the Ministry of Interior Affairs to amend the regulation.

Tien Phong