BẾN TRE — The southern province of Bến Tre is 850 pre-school teachers short for this coming school year, director of the provincial Department of Education and Training Lê Ngọc Bữu said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the provincial People’s Council meeting, Bữu said teacher shortages had been a problem since the school year 2015-16, when the province implemented a new pre-school curriculum issued by the Ministry of Education and Training that increased classroom time for kindergarten students.

In addition, the education sector recently limited the number of permanent positions in favour of unlimited part-time spots, making it harder to hire teachers, he said.

To cope, the department has had to hire retired teachers who taught children at different educational levels, while asking Bến Tre College to train more students at the pre-school faculty, about 100-150 per year.

The department proposed the provincial People’s Committee let Bến Tre College work with Đồng Tháp University to open for classes for pre-school teachers.

It also asked Bến Tre College to open training courses for classroom assistants, said Bữu.

Bến Tre Province has 2,431 kindergarten teachers for this school year, according to the provincial Department of Education and Training.

Last year, more than 80 students graduated from pre-school education faculty, and by June this year, 167 more will graduate.

It is estimated 254 more will graduate by 2020 and 2021, considerably below demand. — VNS