Public preschools and primary schools in HCM City are struggling to recruit enough teachers to meet enrolment this year, according to the city’s Department of Education and Training. — Photo nhandan.com.vn

HCM CITY— Public preschools and primary schools in HCM City are struggling to recruit enough teachers to meet enrolment this year, according to the city’s Department of Education and Training.

More than 1.5 million students of all grades have enrolled in 2,100 public schools, an increase of more than 99,000 students compared to last year.

To meet the enrolment, the city is trying to recruit about 5,000 teachers for all grades, including more than 1,500 pre-school teachers and 1,400 primary school teachers.

At the beginning of the new school year, the city has fulfilled only two-thirds of the recruitment for primary teachers, said Lê Hồng Sơn, director of the department.

The remaining one-third will be recruited throughout the school year, Sơn said.

The city has experienced a shortage of pre-school teachers and talented education teachers in fine arts, music and physical training at primary schools for many years. He blamed the shortage on the lack of students majoring in these fields at pedagogy universities and colleges in the city. 

Many preschools and primary schools failed to recruit enough teachers, although the city had allowed schools to recruit teachers with long-term temporary residence registration (KT3) for the last few years.

“Schools have to accept contract teachers who work for different schools at the same time,” Sơn said.

District 10’s education and training office plans to recruit 38 pre-school teachers but it has not received any applications. In Thủ Đức District, only 46 applications have been submitted for pre-school teachers, while there are 94 vacancies.

The city’s population growth has put pressure on the education and training sector, he said.

Many public pre-schools have only two teachers for a class with 55-60 children. The required maximum per classroom is 35 students.

Pre-schools also have to employ contract labourers for positions such as cooking staff, medical staff and security guards.

With the surge in enrollment, the city needs to build 3,000 new classrooms for the school year. More than 1,500 new classrooms are ready to use at the beginning of the school year.

Construction of a total of 22 new schools will begin this year.

In the last three years, 1,500 classrooms are built each year but it is not enough, particularly for pre-schools and primary school students.

The sector targets three classrooms per 100 school-age people by 2020 but it is difficult to fulfill the target as there is a limited budget for education and training, he said. — VNS