Ho Chi Minh City lacks more than 800 music and art teachers but no one applies

Hundreds of Music and Art teachers are lacking.

On September 29, at the special session of the HCMC People's Council, delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Tu expressed concern about the lack of Music and Fine Arts teachers in many schools, affecting teaching, especially when the program is promoting gifted subjects. This delegate proposed that HCMC needs to have a mechanism to support and attract teachers for schools.

Responding to the above issue, Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Hieu admitted that in the teacher recruitment exam held last weekend, very few candidates registered to teach Music and Fine Arts.

Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Van Hieu answered delegates at the meeting of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Council held on the morning of September 29. Photo: Ngo Tung

Mr. Hieu cited: Music at the primary level has only 46 candidates registered out of a total of 180 quotas. At the secondary level, there are 65 people taking the exam even though 223 teachers are needed. Fine Arts is even more dismal. At the primary level, there are 194 quotas but only 30 people registered, and at the secondary level, the quotas and candidates registered for the exam are 235 and 57 respectively.

“The actual recruitment rate in these subjects is currently less than 10% of the demand. Ho Chi Minh City has two main teacher training institutions: the University of Education and Saigon University. However, each year, the Music and Fine Arts majors only recruit about 20 students. The number of students is already small, and many choose to work in other fields after graduation,” said Mr. Hieu.

According to the leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, the shortage of Music and Fine Arts teachers has been going on for many years. The Department has advised the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on policies to attract human resources, but due to regulations on salary regimes, there has not been a specific mechanism for this group.

To overcome this, the Department has proposed that the Ministry of Education and Training increase the training quota for the Music and Fine Arts majors at the two universities. At the same time, the city advocates developing STEM schools and art schools to create a source of talented students, supplementing the future teaching staff.

Along with that, according to the new instructions of the Ministry, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City will coordinate with the Department of Culture - Sports to invite artists and artisans to participate in teaching at high schools. This method is expected to enhance skills and aesthetic education for students and make up for the current shortage of teachers.

Spending more than 2,600 billion VND to support tuition fees

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Council meeting approved a spending of more than VND2,600 billion to support public and non-public students for the 2025-2026 school year.

Tuition support levels for public educational institutions that are not self-sufficient in regular expenditure are stipulated as follows: Preschool level 180,000 VND, Primary level 80,000 VND, Secondary level 100,000 VND and High school level 120,000 VND.

For online learning, tuition fees are applied at 75% of the official rate. The total budget for this policy in the 2025-2026 school year is 2,019 billion VND.

Candidates take part in the recruitment exam for education sector civil servants on the morning of September 27. Photo: Nhan Le

At the same time, preschool children, high school students and students of general education programs at public and private schools, as well as educational institutions affiliated with universities, colleges and research institutes in Ho Chi Minh City will receive tuition support.

The policy is expected to be applied from the 2025-2026 school year with a total budget of about 624 billion VND taken from the city budget. This source of funding will cover tuition fees for more than 430,000 students at private and public institutions and about 14,000 students at educational institutions affiliated with universities, colleges and research institutes.