VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City Education and Training Department has recruited 1,900 teachers for the city’s general schools. However, it still needs 1,200 more.

There are some 10 universities (4-year training) and junior college (3-year training) in HCM City which have pedagogical faculties and provides teachers to the city’s schools.  However, the schools still keep complaining about the lack of teachers every year. Meanwhile, a lot of graduates of education schools still cannot find jobs.

The HCM City Fatherland’s Front has found from its survey on the preparation for the new academic year 2013-2014 that teachers are seriously lacking in many districts, especially the teachers for nursery and primary schools.

Hoc Mon district, for example, lacks 54 teachers for nursery and primary schools, and the teachers of arts, music and physical education for secondary schools.

The district 11 needs 52 teachers for nursery schools, but only 17 candidates have applied for the jobs. Especially, Tran Minh Ngon, Head of the district 4’s education sub-department, said the local schools lack 108 teachers, including 28 for nursery schools, 52 primary schools and 28 secondary schools. Meanwhile, the latest recruitment campaigns only found 26 teachers in total.

Binh Thanh district reported that it needs 190 teachers, but it has just found 130, while district 12 is expecting the teachers for primary education, and for music and arts subjects.

Bui Ngoc Au, a senior official of the HCM City Education and Training Department, said in general, the department can find enough teachers for secondary and high schools, but it’s very difficult to find teachers for nursery and primary schools.

Au went on to say that the first recruitment campaign of the year has finished, but it’s still unclear how many teachers would turn up to take the office. A lot of candidates may give up the jobs because of their personal problems or because they are not satisfied with the working conditions.

Therefore, he is sure that the department will have to carry out another recruitment campaign this year.

Where are the education schools’ graduates?

The HCM City Education University had 1,800 graduates in 2012, including 1,300 pedagogical bachelors. In 2013, the school enrolls 2,300 students for pedagogical training majors. The HCM City Preschool Education Junior College produces some 400 teachers for nursery schools every year.

However, the two schools provide teachers not only to HCM City, but to other provinces and cities as well. Analysts have noted that the majority of students studying at education schools are from different localities rather in HCM City and they would leave for the home villages after the graduation.

In order to find enough teachers for the schools, HCM City local authorities have allowed the teachers who don’t have permanent residence books in HCM City, to take the jobs at the city’s schools. However, the teachers can only work for the schools in the suburbs.

Educators gave warnings at a recent conference on training teachers that the number of education school students is high, but the number of teachers is low. A lot of students don’t want to become teachers, and others cannot find jobs in HCM City because they don’t have permanent residences in the city. Teaching has become less attractive to people, because the job is hard and demanding.

GD & TD