In Hanoi, the salaries that teachers get are so low that many teachers have given up their jobs, while others have to take extra jobs to earn a living. In HCM City, nursery school teachers are leaving state-owned schools for private run schools.

 

According to Lao Dong newspaper, Hanoi is lacking 3000 nursery school teachers, including 247 management officers and 2898 teachers. Especially, 86 people have been appointed as schools’ headmasters, but they have not been listed on the payroll, i.e those people who can get salaries from the state budget.

My Duc district’s authorities, after examining the lack of teachers at many schools, have found out that many teachers quit schools and have been earning a living with barber shops or family restaurants.

Dam Quoc Khanh, Deputy Chair of Hoang Mai District’s People’s Committee, said that even high quality nursery schools in the districts are seriously lacking teachers. It is because a lot of teachers of state-owned schools leave the schools every year for private run schools where they can earn more money.

President of the Central Institute for Kindergarten Teachers Nguyen Van Le admitted that with the low tuition of 80,000 dong a student a month, state-owned schools now cannot get enough money to pay teachers, while private run schools collect the tuitions which are ten times higher.

“Under the current regulations, there should be 30-35 students only in every class. However, state owned schools have to accept more students in order to be able to have enough money to cover expenses,” Le said. “We have reported this many times to the Ministry of Education and Training, but no considerable improvements have been made”.

Also according to Le, a lot of schools have “asked for help” from his school, because the schools are seriously lacking teachers. A lot of teachers have given up their jobs, while southern provinces are reportedly lacking 60,000 teachers.

After one year of probation, every teacher of private run schools can earn 1.5-2 million dong a month, while the income of state-owned schools is much lower. In rural areas, for example, a teacher can earn 700,000-800,000 dong a month.

Now, when Tet is coming in one month, it is the time for workers to expect Tet bonuses. However, many teachers do not even dream of having Tet bonuses.

Director of Bac Kan province’s Education and Training Department Nguyen Van Ben said that Bac Kan is one of the poorest provinces, therefore, the province does not have the budget for Tet bonuses for teachers. A lot of teachers come from lowland to mountainous areas and have to stay far from their families, but their Tet bonuses are very simple, just a fowl or a kilogram of cooking.

The Truong Cong Dinh Primary School in Vung Tau City gives a kilogram of beef sausage worth 100,000 dong. Meanwhile, teachers of other primary schools in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province get 50,000-100,000 dong only.

Especially, many schools in HCM City say they do not have budget for Tet bonuses, and they have to expect Tet bonuses from the city’s people’s committee. In Tet 2010, the city awarded 600,000 dong to every teacher.

Trinh, an English teacher of a primary school in Binh Thanh district, said that she purchased some essential goods for Tet. Trinh said that she did not dare to spend any money on the 2011 new year parties or entertainment. Trinh complains that her husband is also a teacher, therefore, they do not have much money to enjoy Tet.

“The Tet bonuses we both got last year were just enough to buy a few kilograms of glutinous rice, and a few kilograms of meat,” she complained.

Tu Uyen