VietNamNet
Bridge – Educators have warned that Vietnam will not have enough preschool
teachers in the near future, since working teachers want to give up their jobs,
while high school graduates do not want to become teachers.

According
to the Preschool Department under the Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam
is lacking 20,000 preschool teachers in order to execute the universal education
program for 5-year old children by 2015. In HCM City
alone, there is a shortage of 2000 teachers, which has forced many schools in
the city to use babysitters instead. Low income and pressures have prompted
teachers to quit their job even though the demand for educators is very high in
society.

Hard
pressure

The
low pay deters many people from becoming teachers, while hard pressure of the
job has made many teachers leave schools. Many schools announced they had
enough teachers one day, but complained they lacked teachers the next day,
because the recruited teachers left schools just after a short period of
working.

Le
Thi Kim Van, Headmaster of Hoa Lu Nursery School in District 1 in HCM City,
said that there are two teachers and one babysitter in every class of her
school, and she has been criticized that this is a “waste of teachers” in the
context of serious teacher shortage. “In the 2011 academic year, the district’s
education sub-department only pays for seven babysitters, therefore, I have to
ask for permission from the parents’ association to employ more teachers and
babysitters,” she said.

“Everyone
has his own job and obligation. It would be a “waste of teachers” only if I ask
a teacher who graduates pedagogical school to clean toilets,” she continued.
“The Ministry of Education and Training has called to ease the burden on
teachers. However, it will be an impossible mission if one person has to
undertake the responsibilities of many people”.

Under
the current regulations, a preschool teacher has to work from 7 am to 5 pm
every day. However, in fact, teachers have to come to schools very early in the
morning to greet children and they leave schools late in the afternoon, only after
all the children are picked up by their parents.

“Many
teachers tell me that they do not have time for breakfast. They dare not leave
for meals in break time, because they do not want to leave the classes unsupervised.
If something bad happens at the time when they are absent, they will be
penalized,” Van said.

Nguyen
Thi Kim Thanh, Head of the Preschool Education Department of the HCM City
Education and Training Department, also said that the teachers, who have to
take care of many children are always under hard pressure. Thanh admitted that
at many schools, since headmasters want to save money and refuse to recruit new
teachers, teachers complain that they suffer from stress.

Many
teachers related that parents nowadays set high requirements on teachers. Many
parents even threatened to beat teachers because of a mosquito bite on
children’s skin.

Recruiting
first, training later?

Having
realized that HCM
City is seriously lacking
preschool teachers, the HCM City Education and Training Department has been
organizing activities, including meetings on career guidance, to persuade high
school grades to become teachers. However, even educators do not think that the
activities will be helpful.

Van
said that in order to ease the pressure on teachers, it is necessary to reduce
their working hours. She said that it is necessary for teachers to work in
shifts and allow them to leave schools at 12 pm. If so, poor teachers can work
extra hours if they want to earn more money, and other teachers can spend time
to learning more material or training.

Van
stressed that only by doing this will schools be able to retain teachers. In
order to increase the number of preschool teachers, it is advisable to recruit
high school graduates and then train them later following a model of “recruit
first, train later”.

A
recent survey on the education environment in nursery schools conducted by Saigon University
shows that when asked about job pressure, 87 percent of preschool teachers said
the hardest pressure comes from their superiors, such as inspectors do not show
goodwill, or have casual behaviors, or assign work unsystematically.

Meanwhile,
only 64 percent of teachers said they bear pressure from children. The working
environment is also a problem, as the survey pointed out that only 40 percent
of teachers feel satisfied with the relationship between teachers and their
colleagues

C. V