Bui Thi Ha

After graduation, Ha decided to return to her birthplace of Ha Giang province, where she grew up, hoping to devote herself to teaching.

“There has been no teacher recruitment campaign over the last year in Ha Giang. The provincial department’s officials promised they would inform me if local schools need teachers,” Ha said.

Ha has been taking many jobs in the last year to earn a living. She works as private tutor, vendor and sometimes helps her mother breed pigs and grow vegetables.

She wrote a letter to the Ha Giang provincial Party Committee Secretary, expressing her willingness to take a job in Ha Giang.

“I am trying to earn money with many different jobs while waiting for opportunities. But I don’t know how long I have to wait,” she said.

Pedagogical students don’t have to pay tuition and they study with state funding. Therefore, the redundancy of the students is a big waste to society.

Dinh Quang Bao, former president of the Hanoi University of Education, commented that Ha’s story is a ‘tragedy’.

“If the best graduate is not recruited, I am sure others also cannot find jobs,” Bao said. 
“I know Ha can take many jobs to earn her living, but the jobs are not in her major. Pedagogical schools don’t produce workers for pig farms.”

The problem doesn’t lie in the quality of graduates, but in the lack of jobs. Meanwhile, pedagogical students don’t have to pay tuition and they study with state funding. Therefore, the redundancy of the students is a big waste to society.

Bao has proposed restructuring the system of pedagogical schools in order to avoid oversupply.

Ngo Thanh Hai, a teacher of nine years of experience, in an email to VietNamNet pointed out that there is an oversupply of pedagogical school graduates. This is the result of the massive opening of pedagogical schools in early 2000.

The recruitment policy is also unclear. A Lo Lo ethnic minority man complained that he could not find a job, though he was willing to teach in remote and mountainous areas. He was told that he has to pay a big amount of money for a job.

The training method is also out of date, which, plus the teaching environment, produces passive graduates who are reluctant to change to adapt to new circumstances.