HCM City has proposed new solutions to address a serious teacher shortage in several disciplines. Photo courtesy of tuoitre.vn

HCM CITY – Graduates in certain disciplines should be allowed to start teaching and get their pedagogy qualifications later, within a specified time frame, HCM City officials suggest.

The suggestion recently made to the Ministry of Education and Training seeks to address the serious need for teachers under for the new education programme through special recruitment mechanisms.

Accordingly, public educational institutions will be allowed to link, transfer and use copyrights of international educational programmes with foreign educational institutions. Students completing these programmes and passing the final exams will be awarded both Vietnamese and international degrees.

The city administration also sought permission to draft a document on mechanisms to mobilise resources for developing various types of educational linkages and other tasks. It asked that the committee be assigned to appraise content and issue a framework for local educational materials.

For implementing the 2018 General Education Programme, the new initiative, HCM City recommended that teachers who have bachelor's degrees in relevant disciplines including computer science, music, fine arts and second foreign language (Korean, Japanese, Chinese, French and others) be hired via term contracts or as visiting lecturers.

Currently, such graduates cannot be hired without a certificate of professional training in pedagogy or without prior teaching experience in general education institutions.

The graduates should be allowed to acquire and submit relevant certificates in pedagogical training within 12 months.

Teachers who are currently teaching informatics and arts subjects at general education institutions with a bachelor's degree in relevant disciplines, but do not have a certificate of pedagogical training can also continue their job on contracts or as visiting lecturers.

In these cases, the teachers can complete certificates of professional training in pedagogy within 36 months from the date they start teaching under contracts or as visiting lecturers.

HCM City also requested the education ministry to ensure enough clerical staff, treasurers, accountants and medical staff at schools, considering that many have a large number of students.

It asked the ministry to consider allowing Sài Gòn University to autonomously enroll students in specific teacher training disciplines like informatics and art (music, fine arts) to meet current demand.

Sài Gòn University should be also allowed to provide pedagogical training in language majors including Korean, Japanese, Chinese and French to meet the demand of teachers for second foreign language programmes and general education programmes. - VNS