Under the plan, the new general education program will begin in the 2020-2021 academic year, for first grade students. Art and music will be offered at primary, secondary and high education levels.

Experts warn that Vietnam would lack tens of thousands of teachers to teach these subjects.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), music and art teachers are seriously lacking at primary schools. There are only 13,339 teachers of music for 15,538 primary schools nationwide.

Similarly, there are only 13,445 teachers of art, a lack of 2,093 teachers.

Music and art teachers are seriously lacking at primary schools. There are only 13,339 teachers of music for 15,538 primary schools nationwide.

In general, there are enough teachers of art for secondary schools, 11,424 teachers of music and 11,178 teachers of art, for 10,939 schools.

But the situation is different for high schools.

There are 2,834 high schools nationwide, and if each school needs one music and one art teacher, the number of teachers needed will be 5,668.

According to Dao Dang Phuong, Rector of the Central University for Art Education, MOET predicts that by 2022, Vietnam will need to employ 23,700 teachers of art for secondary schools. As for high school, the figure would be 10,000.

Regarding the quality of teachers, Phuong said the capability of teachers of art and music is uneven. At primary schools, there are teachers graduating from intermediate (2-year training) schools, junior colleges (3-year training) and universities (4-year training), but there are many teachers who still did not graduate from intermediate school.

Meanwhile, if referring to the 2019 Education Law, the teachers at primary and secondary schools must graduate from universities. As such, the demand for training teachers to upgrade their qualifications to meet the standards stipulated in the law will be very high.

The new general education program is scheduled to begin soon, but to date, there still has not been standard independent training for art teachers.

Nguyen Van Dinh from the Training Division of the Central University for Art Education said the school has drawn up a plan to train 1,500 teachers a year. It is expected that the school materials designed for the teacher training will be completed in the fourth quarter of 2019.

In the first and second quarters of 2020, about 1,000-1,500 art and music teachers throughout the country will attend the first training courses. In the third and fourth quarters of the year, the training will be provided to order, about 1,500 teachers a year.

Linh Ha

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