Cao Minh Quy, deputy head of the city's secondary education division, said that education activities in recent years had made progress but that experts were concerned about policies regarding full-time teachers specialising in education universalisation and illiteracy eradication in all districts.

Though primary education universalisation has been promoted strongly, the number of students passing this level has not reached 100 per cent in HCM City. Photo sggp.org.vn

“Previously, Tan Phu District worked with teachers on a contract basis. To ensure better quality of life for these teachers, the district sent them to schools to get a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy. During teacher recruitment in August, many of them were recruited to be primary school teachers,” an education expert from Tan Phu District said.

These district teachers have to fulfill a certain number of lessons per week, but they have no time for education universalisation and illiteracy eradication, the expert said.

In addition, some schools do not know how to accurately determine seniority and preferential allowances for these "special" teachers.

Trinh Vinh Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Education and Training in Go Vap District, said the district had sometimes allocated official teachers to community learning centres to help with education universalisation.

These teachers receive the same benefits as they do in high schools. “The workload is huge but we don't have enough manpower to handle it all,” he added.

Instruction

Le Duy Tan, head of the city's secondary education division, said that education universalisation is compulsory at every school and ward officials are not responsible for implementation.

The city's Department of Education and Training has been told to assign responsibilities for teachers and apply the same rights and obligations to those working on education universalisation.

Nguyen Quang Vinh, head of the primary education division, said there were 136 dropouts in the 2018-19 school year according to figures on education universalisation and illiteracy eradication activities.

The rate of six-year-old students who entered first grade across the city has not reached 100 per cent, as 5,646 students have not finished primary education. Vinh said these numbers showed that educational institutions must further promote the quality of teaching and minimise the number of student dropouts.

Nguyen Van Hieu, deputy director of the city's Department of Education and Training, has instructed authorities to propose solutions on these issues after careful investigation and research.

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VNS