Teachers under pressure to implement new methodology reform

Currently, 71,941 teachers are needed for preschools and general schools.

Teachers at schools are under pressure to reform teaching methods and implement the work of school officials as well, said Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee for Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children at a seminar held several days ago.

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The committee has supervised the implementation of Resolution 88 on general education reform, including the preparation of staff and training for the new general education program.

“After tours to localities and working sessions with agencies, we found that the implementation of the curriculum for first graders is not difficult. However, some problems have arisen which we need to solve and learn from."

One of the problems is the preparation of teaching staff. According to Hoa, the overall number of teachers is high enough, but there is a shortage of teachers in some subjects and too many in other subjects.

As a result, schools cannot allocate enough teachers as required by the new program and textbooks. The situation is serious in the context of the staff downsizing campaign.

“The teaching staff at schools has been cut sharply. Some schools no longer have officers in charge of school aids and libraries,” Hoa said.

As a result, teachers have to concurrently take on work assigned to school officers.

“Teachers have been asked to reform teaching methods, but they also have to fulfill the tasks of school officers. In addition, Vietnam is implementing the 2019 Law on Education which requires the standardization of teachers’ qualifications,” she said.

Regarding teacher online training, this is going smoothly in localities with good IT infrastructure, but not in remote areas.

“Older teachers and teachers who were not well trained will face difficulties in the coming years,” she warned.

However, Hoa recognized the achievements in preparing teaching staff. Localities have prepared teaching staff to run the new general education program. The best and most experienced teachers have been chosen to ensure the program is done well in the first year.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) said that one of the existing problems when reviewing the 2019-2020 academic year was the teacher shortage.

Currently, 71,941 teachers are needed for preschools and general schools. Preschool education alone still lacks 45,242 teachers after 20,300 teachers were made regular members of the personnel.

Meanwhile, primary schools lack 12,450 teachers, secondary schools 4,486, and high schools 9,763. The problem was due to the bad planning and forecasting of the needs of localities.

Thuy Nga