Hundreds of teachers in Hanoi's Soc Son District have complained that they may lose their jobs as they will be tested to keep their existing posts.

Hundreds of teachers in Hanoi's Soc Son District complain about having to take a test to keep their jobs. Photo by Tienphong

256 teachers from primary and secondary schools in the district recently sent a letter to the Tien Phong Newspaper to call for help.

Teacher Nguyen Thi Lan from Minh Phu Secondary School said that many of them have been teaching for a long time and there had been no tests to them to become permanent staff employed by the education ministry.

"Now some teachers including me who have been working on short-term contracts for more than 20 years are being told to take part in the test and will lose our job if we fail," Lan said. 

The 53-year-old teacher said that it was very unfair to her to lose the job after contributing to the ministry for the past 28 years.

Another teacher, Danh Thi Minh Thanh said that she has been teaching literature at a local secondary school for 24 years and there has been only one test held for literature teachers 22 years ago but she had failed to attend due to health problems.

"And now I'm told to compete with many young teachers and I'm afraid that I wouldn’t win and I’d lose my job," Thanh said.

Many of the elderly teachers shared the same worries because English exams will be included in the competition this year, which is not their teaching subject and they never studied before.

"I'm pretty sure I will fail the English tests," Thanh said.

In an interview with the Vietnamnet Newspaper on the issue, vice head of the Internal Affairs Department at Soc Son District People's Committee, Tran Thi Toan admitted that the decision was aimed at improving staff quality and reducing the number of staff at government agencies following the city's policy.

"Teachers in Soc Son and many other districts in the city as well may be affected by the policy," Toan said. "If they don't pass the test, their labour contract will be terminated from May 2020 and there will be no short-term contracts signed with teachers from that time."

The official expressed that although this was a tough policy, it was not unfair because "we have to prioritise the quality of teachers."

"I think you cannot say that you did not learn IT or English skills at schools before and now it's unfair when you are required to know about them," she said. "If you want to keep your job, you have to learn new skills to keep up with the new requirements."

Tien Phong/Dtinews