LookAtVietnam – The Ministry of Education and Training plans to spend VND28 trillion (US$1.5 billion) to achieve its targets for quality teacher training by 2012.

Teacher and grade 2 students in a Vietnamese language lesson in Kim Boi district in the northern province of Hoa Binh.

Results from the first three years of the ministry’s project for 2005-10 to improve the quality of teachers and management staff show it has not made any significant breakthroughs on teacher quantity or quality.

At kindergarten level, the required rate is eight children to a teacher but is 11 to one. At primary level, the 345,000 teachers are 86 per cent of the required number.

Secondary-level teacher numbers meet the demand but the structure is unbalanced. Teachers of social and natural sciences exceed requirements but there is a lack of teachers for arts, computer science and technology.

The rate of students per lecturer in universities and colleges is 30.8 but in many universities it is more than 50. The ministry’s target is 20.

The ministry says the quality of teaching remains a problem and needs tackling.

Of the 130,000 teachers at high-school level, 3.8 per cent have a master decree.

Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien said during the next two years, the sector was unlikely to achieve a target of training 8,000 more students to masters level, which would be 6.2 per cent of high-school teachers.

Last year, the number of university lecturers with a master decree reached 40.3 per cent from 36.5 per cent, but following many retirements the rate of lecturers with a doctorate or associated doctorate decree slipped to 14.7 per cent from 15.56 per cent.

“The situation is caused by unsystematic and scattered training and lack of a strategic plan for the education sector,” said Hien.

The ministry will this year establish a steering committee, directed by a deputy minister, to develop a system for teachers universities .

A council with members being rectors of teachers universities and colleges will be formed to develop a common syllabus for the teaching sector.

By the beginning of next year, annual checks would be carried out at teaching universities and colleges, said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News