Lack of schools and teachers is the burning issue put into discussion at the session on the construction of national standard public schools and the development of new kindergartens and high schools in Hanoi held days ago by the Standing Committee of the People's Council.

Duy Hoang Duong, head of the Legal Department of the Hanoi People’s Council requested the Department of Home Affairs, clarified the current situation of lacking teachers and the recruitment mechanism to ensure the teachers’ quality in the time to come.

According to deputy director of the Hanoi Education and Training Department Nguyen Thi Lieu, the problem has existed many years.

The number of teachers that schools can have this year is 97,594 (teachers are listed as public employees and receive pay from the state). The number of existing teachers is 90,675, and the unused number is 6,919. Because of many reasons, schools still cannot continue recruitment, though the ‘quota’ has not been used up.

According to Lieu, even if schools have fulfilled the recruitment plan, the number of teachers would still be lower compared with the norm set by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET). 

Hanoi lacks 10,915 teachers for the 2023-2024 academic year. The department has advised the municipal authorities to report to the central government and ask for another 8,900 jobs.

Lieu went on to say that the department has given advice to the local authorities to set up a decentralization mechanism, allowing the heads of departments, branches and districts to recruit public employees, with the priority given to education.

“It is now a difficult time for the educational sector,” Lieu said.

The Department of Home Affairs has suggested that the Hanoi People’s Council promulgate a resolution allowing non-business public units to recruit more workers, working under labor contracts signed between the units and workers.

Lack of schools is another problem being faced by Hanoi. The report released at the event showed that 8 districts in the inner city are lacking schools, if referring to the current regulation that each commune/ward must have at least one public school for every education level.

In principle, every commune/ward/town must have at least one public nursery school, one primary school, one secondary school and one high school for every 30,000-50,000 people. As such, Hanoi needs 49 more nursery and primary schools.

The lack of schools is attributed to unreasonable urban planning and investors focusing only on developing urban areas, while ignoring the development of schools.

Thanh Hung