More and more qualified teachers have left state-owned schools for private and international schools, which has made the teacher shortage in HCM City more serious. Meanwhile, good students are not interested in becoming teachers.

The city’s school for gifted students is also facing the same problem. Six teachers are following training courses to get their master’s degree (50% of expenses are propped up by the school), while one teacher is following the training course in the US to get their doctoral degree. Leaders of the school said that they are not sure if the teachers will return to the school after the training courses.

While HCM City is seriously lacking teachers, more and more privately-run and international schools have been newly established, which have attracted qualified teachers from state-owned schools. This has made the teacher shortage become more and more serious.

In the 2008-2009 academic year the Trung Vuong School asked the city’s education and training department to provide three English teachers, but the demand has not been satisfactory. Meanwhile, two English teachers of the school have resigned their work to leave for an international school and a privately-run university. As the result, other English teachers all here have full schedules, with each of them having thirty periods a week.

What to do?

Associate Professor Dr. Vo Thi Bach Mai, Headmaster of the city’s school for talented students, said that it is very difficult to invite visiting teachers with the current low salaries.

Vo Anh Dung, Headmaster of the Le Hong Phong Gifted School, complained that excellent students now do not want to study at pedagogical universities to become teachers. The school had only one former student, who then became a teacher and he is now working for the school.

The Trung Vuong, Le Hong Phong, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Le Quy Don, and Hung Vuong Schools each year saw only a few students registering to study at pedagogical universities. Every year, there are only 1,000 graduates from the HCM City Pedagogical University and Saigon University, which just meet one quarter of the demand for teachers of the city.

VietNamNet/TT