VietNamNet Bridge – Working under hard pressure and earning little money are the main reasons that make a half of Vietnamese teachers feel regret that they chose to become teachers.

The report by the Education Science Research Institute has released a report which has stirred up the public, saying that 50 percent of Vietnamese teachers wish they have not chosen to work as teachers.

Dr Vu Trong Ry from the institute said he posed the same question to general school teachers: Will you choose to work as a teacher once again, if you are allowed to make decision again?

40.9 percent of primary school teachers said “no.” Meanwhile, the figures were 59 percent for secondary school teachers and 52.4 percent for high school teachers.

Half of Vietnamese teachers have become fed up with the teaching job because of the low income. The job cannot feed teachers themselves and their families. Since teachers cannot live on their main career, they have to take extra jobs, from giving private tutoring lessons, working on rice field, trading or asking for the support from relatives.

Ry has warned that once teachers feel tired of the teaching job, they would not have the driving force to continue teaching. They would just try to fulfill their responsibility, while they do not love the career.

The information has caused pessimistic to many people. In principle, the quality of the education system would never exceed the qualification of the teaching staff. This means that with the problems in the teaching staff, Vietnam would not have a high quality education.

Meanwhile, a low quality education system would not produce good students. The modern material facilities, good textbooks and curriculums would not help create a high quality education if there are problems with the teaching staff.

Ry believes that teachers nowadays are the aiming points of the most violent criticisms than ever.

People believe that teaching is an easy job, therefore, teachers should not complain about the low pay, especially when they cannot fulfill the responsibilities assigned to them.

However, Ry has affirmed that teaching is a hard work. A survey, conducted recently on 526 general school teachers from 27 schools in five provinces, showed the terribly high number of working hours of teachers.

Primary school teachers have the actual working hours higher by 50 percent than the number of working hours stipulated by the State (40 hours a week). Meanwhile, the figures are 1.7 times and 1.8 times for secondary and high school teachers.

Ry said the figures can clearly show how hard teachers work. Besides, they have to work under the hard pressure from parents, education management officers and the society. It seems that every bad thing has been blamed on educators.

Meanwhile, a pedagogical school graduate can only earn 2 million dong a month, which is just enough for food for half a month. The monthly income of young teachers, who have just finished universities, proves to be not enough for fuel to run motorbike to school, mobile phones or parties with friends. Meanwhile, many of them have been relying on parents.

The hard work and low pay have led to many teachers suffering from serious diseases, while the modest income for teachers is not enough for them to treat diseases.

However, the biggest problem is that once teachers do not love their career and do not devote themselves to the teaching, they would not be able to produce good students and useful citizens for the country.

Source: Kien Thuc