LookAtVietnam – Primary schools in HCM City are complaining that their schools are overloaded with overly high numbers of first-grade students.

The number of students entering first grade this year represents a dramatic increase due to the high number of children born in 2003, the year of the Goat, which has caused big difficulties for all schools nationwide.

By July 31, 2009, the primary schools in Tan Phu district had accepted 7,500 students into first-grade classes. Ta Tan, Head of the Tan Phu district Education Sub-department, said that every class now has 50 students on average, while the percentage of students learning both in the morning and afternoon has dropped from 26 percent last school year to 17 percent this year.

Tran Huu Vinh, Head of the Binh Tan district Education Sub-department, also said that schools in the district are considering merging classes, as the number of students registering to study at the schools in the district has reached 5,800.

In other districts like Thu Duc and Go Vap, the number of children entering first grade this year is 2,000 more than last year.

Tan said that the day-boarding class cuts will cause big difficulties for students’ parents who do not have time to drop-off and pick-up their children every day.

Schools still awaiting teachers

The higher number of primary school students has led to a lack of teachers.

Hai from Tan Binh district said that the district this year has 50 more first-grade classes; therefore, local schools will accept all teachers provided by the city’s education and training department.

Vinh said Binh Tan needs 120 primary school teachers, Thu Duc 80 and Go Vap 93.

Meanwhile, the HCM City Education and Training Department said that it has only recruited 503 primary school teachers, while it needs more than 1,000. In fact, the number of teachers who actually begin working is always lower than the number of recruited teachers, since many teachers do not show up even after they pass the competition.

Local education sub-departments anticipate that they will not receive enough teachers from the city’s education and training department, and they are now thinking of recruiting teachers themselves to work under labour contracts signed directly with the schools. Some schools have called for teachers on maternity leave to return to work sooner than planned.

Ta Tan said that his district has accepted 18 teachers who have transferred from other districts, while the city’s education and training department has not sent anyone to the district. Meanwhile, Vinh said that he is not sure how many teachers introduced by the city’s education and training department will accept working in the district.

Van Cong Sang, Head of the Personnel Department under the HCM City Education and Training Department, said that the city has recruited 3,400 teachers in total recently. However, the number is still lower than the demand and the city is still lacking 600 primary school teachers. Therefore, the city is planning to recruit more teachers in the second stage.

He said that as the teacher shortage has become serious, the city’s education and training department will recruit teachers who are temporary residents (who do not have ho khau, or permanent residence registration) and teachers from other provinces as well.

VietNamNet/NLD