VietNamNet Bridge – After many years of enduring the teacher shortage, HCM City now suffers the teacher redundancy. The number of candidates registering to attend the competitive competition for the jobs at high schools this year is six times higher than the number of students to be recruited.

Hundreds of teachers attended the recruitment interview at the HCM City Education and Training Department on August 1. T, one of the candidates, said though she attended the interview, she did not put a high hope on the opportunity, even though she has the university degree at “good level.”

“Only 29 physics teachers would be selected, while there are 282 candidates. I think the candidates with master degrees would be prioritized,” T said.

“What would you do, if you fail the competition exam?” – “I have applied for the post of administer at a private school. However, I have been told that the school prioritizes male teachers,” she replied.

T said that if she cannot find the opportunities to work as a teacher, he would go working as a worker in an export processing zone for one year, while waiting for the next year’s opportunities, because she cannot sit idle now.

The distress of the freelance teachers

Like T, a lot of candidates said they did not think they would be recruited. D, a candidate, said she has been working as a freelance teacher for one year already, since the day of graduation.

“I sometimes give lessons at some schools as a visiting teacher. However, the job has been unstable. They (the schools) would call me when they need me,” she complained.

D said HCM City needs 31 biology teachers, which means that 130 candidates would fail. If D cannot become a teacher, she wishes to be able to work as an officer of laboratory, library. “I would rather take these jobs than keeping working as a freelancer,” she said.

L seemed to be elder than other candidates attending the exams in early August. She said she graduated pedagogical school three years ago, but she still has not found a suitable job, because the “education sector is now witnessing the history teacher oversupply.”

Now L works as an administer for a private school and receives 3 million dong a month only for a hard job which requires her to be present at the school from 6 am to 6 pm every day.

One has to compete with six others

According to the HCM City Education and Training Department, by August 2, the high schools in the city had got the applications from 2975 candidates, while the department planned to recruit 525 teachers only; which means that one candidate would have to compete with six others for a seat at a school.

Meanwhile, Van Cong Sang, a senior official of the HCM City Education and Training said the demand for teachers and officers from private schools has also become weaker.

This means that about 1300 teachers would have nowhere to work, which is really a big waste of the society’s resources and money. In a plan to develop the teaching staff for schools, the state exempts tuitions for pedagogical school students. Meanwhile, the schools’ graduates have been unemployed.

The most effective solution to settle the current problem is to organize training based on the predictions about the demand. However, the employers (general schools) and the trainers (pedagogical universities) still have not got a common voice to improve the situation.

Tien Phong