Ha Thanh Quoc, Director of the Quang Nam Education and Training Department, said that the request was very difficult to implement.

Localities pay training establishments that take orders and have the right to use the teachers to be produced. However, there are still many unemployed pedagogical school graduates, and if localities place orders, it will be a waste for the local budget.

Also, local schools cannot employ more teachers even though the locality seriously lacks preschool teachers, because the workforce set by the Ministry of Home Affairs remains unchanged.

Quoc said that ordering would be feasible if local authorities have the right to recruit teachers based on local supply and demand during different periods.

“It will be a big waste if we order teacher production when we don’t have information about supply and demand,” Quoc explained.

Le Thi Huong, Director of the Quang Tri Education and Training Department, said Quang Tri is assessing reports to find out how many teachers are needed and how many are in excess. Quang Tri has yet to place orders this year.

Nguyen Ngoc Thai, Director of the Quang Ngai Education and Training Department, said the provincial people’s committee will figure out how many teachers the province needs at different education levels and for different subjects in order to place orders with pedagogical schools. This means that the locality will have to take responsibility for the personnel it orders.

Meanwhile, there are problems in recruitment regulations. The recruitment must be made in accordance with Decree 115 on employing, using and managing public employees. This means that recruitment must be made through examinations.

“There’s a question about what will happen if pedagogical school graduates fail the entrance exams. Will they have to pay back the training money to the State?” he said, adding that his department has sent a document to MOET to ask about the issue but there has been no reply.

The link between ordering and recruitment is also a concern of Cao Xuan Hung, Director of the Nam Dinh Education Department.

“Under Decree 116, localities have to spend money to order from pedagogical schools. But the recruitment of teachers must be in accordance with Decree 115, i.e. the recruitment of teachers is just like the recruitment of public employees in other fields,” Hung said.

“We place orders now, but we are not sure if we can recruit the personnel we want,” he explained. “If we cannot recruit the ‘products’ we order, it would be better not to order, and just recruit personnel anytime when we want."

The Rector of Hanoi University of Education, Nguyen Van Minh, said the school has received orders from only three provinces, Cao Bang, Ha Giang and Lai Chau (200 out of 4,000 seats reserved for order).

Cao Ba Cuong, Vice Rector of the Hanoi University of Education No 2, said the school has received two orders from Ha Giang and Cao Bang (200).

A representative of MOET’s Planning and Finance Department said that local authorities can devise their own criteria to recruit teachers.

“Nghe An province, for example, has orders to the Hanoi University of Education to produce 300 teachers and it has the right to set requirements, such as the residential locations of students, the entrance exam scores, and the commitments to work as requested by the locality,” he explained.

Asked whether the ordered candidates who fail exams must pay back the training money, he said that Decree 116 doesn’t aim to get the money back but to only improve quality and produce teachers based on demand. 

Thanh Hung - Thuy Nga

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