VietNamNet Bridge – Thousands of candidates registered to take the competitive examination to teach at general schools in HCM City in 2014, but the schools recruited only 500 people.

According to the HCM City Education and Training Department, high schools in the city in 2014 needed 77 math teachers, while 148 candidates applied for the posts.

As for physics teachers, while 129 candidates applied, only 51 were recruited as planned. The same situation occurred with other teaching subjects, including chemistry, literature, history and geography.

In 2013, the education department received 1,131 registrations to attend competitive exams to teach at local high schools. Meanwhile, the city planned to recruit 751 teachers in total, not only for high schools but for junior colleges (3-year training) and intermediate schools (2-year training) as well.

Nguyen Huynh Long, head of the personnel division of the HCM City education department, said the city has enough teachers for high schools, and has no need to produce more teachers.

Long noted that while the number of candidates applying to become literature teachers was five times higher than the number of posts offered, pedagogical universities still continue producing literature teachers every year.

However, he admitted that it was very difficult for universities to know how many teachers they need to produce.

The pedagogical schools in the city, including the HCM City University of Education, the HCM City Central Junior College of Education and the Sai Gon University, not only provide teachers to the city, but also to other localities.

He also pointed out a major problem that pedagogical school graduates do not return home after finishing school, but stay in the city and look for jobs, contributing to the oversupply.

Many candidates, who failed the competitive exams to teach at high schools, decided to apply for posts at secondary, primary and nursery schools. However, secondary and primary schools in the city have also been full.

The headmaster of a secondary school in district 1 noted that the number of students has not increased in the last few years, while the majority of teachers at her school were young. Therefore, she does not need to employ more teachers.

An official of the HCM City Education and Training Department noted that while there are numerous teachers in math, literature and English, there are very few teachers in “less common subjects” such as industry and agricultural techniques.

“There were only 10 candidates for industry and agriculture techniques, while nine were recruited in 2014,” he said.

People-founded schools reportedly have low demand for teachers now because of the modest numbers of students they can enroll.

NLD