Every August, localities and the education sector are busy completing the recruitment of teachers and staff for the new school year. However, their efforts to remedy a chronic shortage of teachers were unrewarded. This year, the recruitment process has seen many improvements, but it still hasn’t completely resolved the shortage of teachers in schools.
Last weekend, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training announced the list of candidates who passed the recruitment for the 2024-2025 school year. This year’s recruitment results show that 13 out of 15 subjects have recruited enough teachers compared to the demand, with many subjects having very high competition rates, such as Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. This is a more positive outcome compared to previous school years, as there is no longer a shortage of teacher recruitment sources in many subjects. However, two subjects did not recruit enough teachers this school year, both of which are specialized subjects. Specifically, Music had 8 candidates passing out of 9 recruitment needs, and Art had 3 candidates passing out of 7 recruitment needs.
Previously, during the application review round, Music and Art were the two subjects with the lowest number of recruitment applications, with 13 applications for Music and five applications for Art. Head Tong Phuoc Loc from a division of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that the shortage of teacher recruitment sources for specialized subjects occurs not only at high school schools but also at primary and secondary schools. In addition to Music and Art, primary and secondary schools also lack recruitment sources for other specialized subjects such as English, Informatics, and Physical Education.
Head Pham Dang Khoa of the Education and Training Department of Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3 said that one of the reasons for the annual recruitment but still lacking teachers is that the recruitment process is currently implemented independently by localities. Therefore, it results in a candidate submitting applications to several districts. When the results are announced, candidates do not show up to take the position because they have been accepted elsewhere and have chosen a better working environment. This reality forces districts to organize multiple recruitment within the same school year or consider the option of sharing teachers between schools.
Representatives from many education departments in Ho Chi Minh City have stated that the current income of teachers in public schools is not sufficient to retain talented teachers. Many young teachers, after working in public schools for a while, have moved to non-public sectors or private training centers due to better income. The education sector has not yet found an appropriate solution for this long-standing issue as it also relates to finance and remuneration policies.
This year’s recruitment for the 2024-2025 school year has seen the recruitment of academic staff and student psychological counselors for the first time. At high schools, the recruitment results from early August showed that 10 candidates were selected for the academic staff position out of 12 needed. However, the position of student psychological counselor has not been filled as schools are currently using part-time staff for this role. For many other positions, recruitment has not met the actual needs of the schools. For example, only 5 candidates were selected out of 14 needed for the position of IT staff while four were selected out of 6 needed for accounting staff. Worse, seven equipment and laboratory staff were selected while schools needed 12 persons and only one clerical staff was recruited.
At preschools, primary, and secondary schools, the demand for medical staff, IT staff, and library staff is very high every year, but localities still lack recruitment sources. To address these difficulties, for the 2024-2025 school year, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has expanded the recruitment decentralization to 29 public non-business units in the city. Chief Ho Tan Minh of the Office of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that expanding recruitment decentralization aims to help schools be more proactive in recruiting teachers and staff, thereby enhancing the responsibility of the leaders and ensuring the effective operation of the units.
In conclusion, while there have been improvements in the recruitment process for teachers and staff in schools, the chronic shortage of teachers still persists. The education sector and localities need to work together to find sustainable solutions to attract and retain talented teachers, especially in specialized subjects. By addressing issues such as income levels, recruitment processes, and decentralization, they can ensure that schools have the necessary resources to provide quality education to students.
