Students do morning exercise at a HCM City kindergarten. The city needs nearly 5,000 additional teachers and educational staff for the 2025-26 academic year. — VNS Photo Nguyễn Diệp

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Education and Training plans to hire 4,865 additional teachers and educational staff for schools and continuing education centres in the 2025-26 academic year to meet the needs of a growing student population in the city.

After its merger with Bình Dương and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu provinces, the city will have about 2.6 million students from pre-school to high schools in the 2025-26 school year, an increase of nearly 40,000 students compared to the previous school year, enrolled in over 3,500 schools and nearly 3,400 independent private pre-school classes.

The teaching workforce currently numbers more than 110,000.

To accommodate the increase, the city will put into use 1,287 new classrooms funded by the city’s budget and around 200 classrooms from private resources.

The department has sought feedback from relevant agencies and 168 wards, communes and townships to organise the recruitment.

The plan will be submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for approval, after which the recruitment process will begin, and is expected to be completed by the end of September.

In previous years, recruitment was carried out by both the department and local districts, with the latter hiring teachers for kindergartens to lower secondary schools and the department handling high school recruitment.

The city’s report on the 2024–25 school year showed that the teaching staff met professional and ethical standards, actively improved their qualifications, and adapted to new teaching methods.

However, some areas continue to face shortages, particularly in foreign languages, information technology, music, fine arts, technology, and physical education.

Recruitment challenges remain in continuing education and vocational centres, as well as in certain localities such as the former Bình Dương Zone 2.

Last year, the city needed 5,762 teachers but recruited only 2,556, leaving more than 2,200 vacancies.

Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, director of the department, said the city will continue to address shortages through both recruitment and the transfer of teachers between schools as needed.

From January 1, 2026, the new Teachers’ Law will allow greater flexibility in recruitment, transfers and assignments in line with local needs and conditions. — VNS