Proactively appoint management staff and recruit teachers

Many public educational institutions from kindergarten to secondary school are facing difficulties in appointing new and re-appointing management staff and recruiting teachers. This directly affects the quality of management as well as teaching and learning activities, especially in schools with a large shortage of teachers.

Teachers of Phan Chu Trinh Primary School (Tan Trieu Ward, Dong Nai Province) during an experience class with the simulation model of the elevated urban railway system with students. Photo: Cong Nghia

Through practical research, there are public educational institutions in some communes and wards that have been without a principal for nearly 2 years; there are schools where the principal and vice principal have expired their official appointment for many months but have not yet been appointed or reappointed. In addition, many schools are still waiting for the allocation of teachers to recruit, instead of having to hire temporary contracts due to instability.

Lack of administrators and teachers

The vice principal in charge of a public primary school with a large number of students in a ward of the province said that it has been nearly 2 years since the old principal was transferred to another school, but the school has not had a new principal to replace him. The process of appointing a new principal is quite difficult and complicated, especially when anonymous petitions are submitted without a basis for handling. Leaving the principal vacant for such a long time as recently has caused the school to face many difficulties in management and improving the quality of teaching and learning.

Vice Chairman of Dinh Quan Commune People's Committee Ngo Dang Thanh said: After nearly 4 months of implementing the 2-level local government model, the commune has not yet appointed or reappointed any management staff for public educational institutions in the area. In particular, recruiting teachers for schools is even more difficult, although the province has issued temporary guidelines on recruiting and managing civil servants and public employees, but only recently has the number of positions been allocated to communes for recruitment.

According to research, some schools in the old Dinh Quan district are also facing a shortage of teachers due to the interruption of recruitment during the initial period of implementing the 2-level local government model. Educational facilities from kindergarten to junior high school were transferred from the previous district-level education and training department to the commune-level management, but the slow issuance of teacher recruitment procedures and staff allocation has led to interruptions in recruitment. Some schools, while waiting to recruit teachers on the payroll, had to sign temporary contracts but still did not have the funds to pay salaries.

After merging the wards: Tam Hiep, Tan Tien, Tan Mai, Tam Hoa, Binh Da into the new ward Tam Hiep, this ward has 21 public schools from kindergarten to junior high school.

Vice Chairwoman of Tam Hiep Ward People's Committee Luu Thi Hang said: The ward is urgently completing the management staff positions for the schools that are still lacking after the Provincial People's Committee has provided instructions on the temporary implementation process. In addition, the ward is still short of about 100 teachers, but recently the province has only allocated 20 positions to the ward, so the ward has not been able to completely solve the difficulty of lacking teachers, especially teachers of Music, Fine Arts, and Physical Education.

Resolving difficulties for localities

According to officials of some wards and communes in the province, after implementing the 2-level local government model, the task of managing educational institutions under the authority of the commune level is quite large, and the work of appointing management staff and recruiting teachers is only a part of it, so it is inevitable that there will be initial difficulties and confusion.

The whole province still has 4,581 unfilled teacher positions.

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, after the merger of the two former provinces of Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai, the entire Dong Nai province now has 39,223 teachers. The number of unemployed teachers is 4,581, of which 1,763 are in preschool, 1,706 are in primary school, 674 are in secondary school, 417 are in high school and 21 are in continuing education.

The Vice Chairman of a commune People's Committee in a border area said: The work of appointing management staff and recruiting teachers for schools is a new task for commune-level authorities operating under the new model. The most difficult thing for the commune People's Committee at present is the lack of staff with expertise in education management, understanding the process of appointing management staff and recruiting teachers. Once there are guidelines for the temporary appointment process and the allocation of staff, we hope that the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Education and Training will have additional guidance documents or online training on the appointment and recruitment process for communes and wards to implement in accordance with the process and quality.

According to principals of many schools in the province, the lack of teachers is a difficulty for teaching and learning activities of schools and needs to be resolved soon. Due to the inability to recruit, lack of procedures, and lack of staff, schools have to deal with temporary difficulties by contracting teachers; but it is also very inconvenient, because if recruiting according to the assigned staff, the school will not have to balance the salary fund. On the other hand, when assigning tasks to teachers on the staff, it is still more secure, because contract teachers' tasks end when the teaching period ends.

Mr. Tran Cong Nghi, former Head of the Department of Education and Training of Long Khanh City, currently Head of the Party Building Committee of Long Khanh Ward, said: Currently, the province has issued temporary guidelines on appointing management staff and recruiting civil servants for communes, but new appointments are still a difficulty, because there are no official guidelines on planning and new appointments. Currently, Long Khanh Ward has only been able to re-appoint in some qualified cases or in truly urgent cases. Therefore, localities really need the province to issue an official appointment process that is unified and synchronous in implementation.

In addition to creating conditions for localities and schools to have enough management staff and necessary teacher staff, many schools also want to increase training and have policies to attract teachers in specific subjects. For example, the subjects: Fine Arts, Music, Information Technology, Physical Education are currently very difficult to recruit teachers, because the number of students graduating from teacher training schools each year is very small. Schools also want to soon complete regulations so that schools can connect with people with expertise in music, fine arts, and sports to participate in teaching these subjects in schools, thereby both overcoming the shortage of teachers and contributing to enriching and making more vivid the implementation of the 2018 General Education Program.

Justice

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/giao-duc/202510/chu-dong-bo-nhiem-can-bo-quan-ly-va-tuyen-dung-giao-vien-7ca3a57/