LookAtVietnam – “Continuation” schools in HCM City are seriously lacking teachers with students learning in very poor conditions.

It’s not hard to see why continuation schools are short of teachers. A wage of just 17,000 dong ($1) per hour is on offer at secondary continuation level. Four out of five teachers say ‘no’ to the offer, while the fifth takes the job but lasts only a month on average.

The pay represents less than half of what’s on offer to secondary level teachers at traditional schools. The situation has left continuation schools having only between one third and a half of the required teachers they need.

At Binh Chanh Continuation School, for example, in the 2008-2009 school year, there were only five permanent teachers taking care of nearly 700 learners.

Director of Binh Chanh Continuation School Vo Van Nhan said the income of the permanent teachers is also very low and that travel expenses alone can eat up half their income.

Duong Phuc Hau, deputy director of the Continuation School in District 4, also said that the income of the continuation school teachers is not high enough to cover basic needs. The teachers who do remain there keep working despite the low pay simply because they love their job and students,

While waiting for the city’s authorities to grant a larger plot of land for the school campus, the Binh Thanh district’s continuation school has had to rent eight rooms from Cuu Long Secondary School for its evening classes. There are only 10 classrooms now at the centre and it requires space for 32.

Deputy director of District 7’s continuation school Phu Ngoc Hung says students are having to learn at the district’s culture centre, where offices have been changed into makeshift classrooms for 900 learners.

In Binh Chanh district the continuation school has only three classrooms and students are now travelling to different classrooms located in different districts, right across the city.

Teachers and students had been told they would have a campus big enough to accommodate all students. However, plans remain on paper only.

In 2008-2009, HCM City had 30 continuation schools with 569 classrooms. Fourteen schools did not have headquarters of their own, nine schools did not have laboratories, libraries or computer labs. There were 408 permanent teachers - less than one per classroom.

VietNamNet/TT