According to the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), there are enough teachers of music and arts for secondary education, but primary schools face a serious shortage.

If one teacher of music and arts was working for each primary school, Vietnam would need an additional 2,199 teachers of music and 2,093 teachers of arts. At present, because of the shortage, the teaching of arts and music is undertaken by teachers of other subjects.

According to MOET, music and arts are compulsory subjects in primary education, but there is no legal document which says teachers must be trained in arts and music to be eligible to teach the subjects.

Many schools, to cut spending, do not recruit teachers trained in the majors, but only teachers who can teach all subjects.

As a result, the qualifications of music and arts teachers are poor and they face difficulties teaching the subjects. This is a big problem for the new education program.

According to MOET, music and arts are compulsory subjects in primary education, but there is no legal document which says teachers must be trained in arts and music to be eligible to teach the subjects.

A music teacher in Hanoi said the facilities that serve the teaching of music are very poor. Most state-owned primary and secondary schools do not have classrooms specifically reserved for the subjects, which makes it difficult for teachers to organize classes.

She also complained that teachers of arts and music do not receive respect from students and parents.

“The school where I work for organized a ceremony to honor a student who won a prize at a local English competition. But there was no such event for my student, who won a prize at a district’s song and music competition,” she said.

“You can see that universities and junior colleges have rushed to open new training majors in recent years. But the number of arts and music faculties in universities is still modest,” she said.

Students spend most of their time on math, literature and English, which are considered major subjects, while music and arts are just optional, auxiliary subjects. They learn subjects at a moderate level just to pass exams, and don’t try their best to obtain the best results.

Minister of Education Phung Xuan Nha also admitted that students do not pay appropriate attention to arts and music, but focus on science subjects, because their major purpose is passing exams to enter universities.

At general schools, arts and music are just considered the ‘spice’, not the main dish.

But the purpose of education is preparing well-rounded citizens for society.

Mai Lan 

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