Though primary education universalisation has been promoted strongly, the number of students passing this level has not reached 100 per cent in HCM City.  Photo sggp.org.vn

HCM CITY –  A variety of solutions to improve recruitment and incentive policies for teachers were proposed by representatives from 24 districts at a recent conference on education universalisation and illiteracy eradication in HCM City, according to a report in Sài Gòn Giải Phóng (Liberated Sài Gòn) newspaper.

Cao Minh Quý, deputy head of the city's secondary education division, said that education activities in recent years had made progress but that experts were concerned about policies regarding full-time teachers specialising in education universalisation and illiteracy eradication in all districts.

“Previously, Tân Phú District worked with teachers on a contract basis. To ensure better quality of life for these teachers, the district sent them to schools to get a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy. During teacher recruitment in August, many of them were recruited to be primary school teachers,” an education expert from Tân Phú District said.

These district teachers have to fulfill a certain number of lessons per week, but they have no time for education universalisation and illiteracy eradication, the expert said.

In addition, some schools do not know how to accurately determine seniority and preferential allowances for these "special" teachers.

Trịnh Vĩnh Thanh, deputy head of the Department of Education and Training in Gò Vấp District, said the district had sometimes allocated official teachers to community learning centres to help with education universalisation.

These teachers receive the same benefits as they do in high schools. “The workload is huge but we don't have enough manpower to handle it all,” he added.

Instruction

Lê Duy Tân, head of the city's secondary education division, said that education universalisation is compulsory at every school and ward officials are not responsible for implementation.

The city's Department of Education and Training has been told to assign responsibilities for teachers and apply the same rights and obligations to those working on education universalisation.

Nguyễn Quang Vinh, head of the primary education division, said there were 136 dropouts in the 2018-19 school year according to figures on education universalisation and illiteracy eradication activities.

The rate of six-year-old students who entered first grade across the city has not reached 100 per cent, as 5,646 students have not finished primary education. Vinh said these numbers showed that educational institutions must further promote the quality of teaching and minimise the number of student dropouts.

Nguyễn Văn Hiếu, deputy director of the city's Department of Education and Training, has instructed authorities to propose solutions on these issues after careful investigation and research. – VNS