Proactive appointment of management staff and teacher recruitment

Many public educational institutions, from kindergartens to lower secondary schools across Dong Nai province, are facing significant difficulties in appointing and re-appointing management staff and recruiting new teachers. This situation is severely affecting the quality of both school administration and teaching activities, particularly in schools already experiencing a severe lack of teaching personnel.

Teachers at Phan Chu Trinh Primary School (Tan Trieu Ward, Dong Nai Province) guide students during an experiential learning session using a simulation model of the elevated urban railway system. Photo: Cong Nghia

Through field observations, it was found that several public schools in local communes and wards have been operating without their own principals for nearly two years. In some other schools, principals and vice principals have had their official appointment terms expire for months without being renewed or replaced.  Meanwhile, many schools are still waiting for the allocation of official teacher quotas to recruit permanent staff, forcing them to rely on unstable temporary contracts in the interim.

Lack of administrators and teachers

The acting vice principal of a crowded public primary school in a local ward reported that it has been nearly two years since the former principal was transferred to another school, yet no new principal has been appointed to replace him. The process for appointing a new principal has been quite difficult and complicated, citing issues like unsubstantiated anonymous petitions that stall proceedings. "Leaving the principal position vacant for such a long time has created numerous difficulties in management and improving the quality of teaching and learning," the official stated.

Ngo Dang Thanh, Vice Chairman of Dinh Quan Commune People's Committee, confirmed that nearly four months after implementing the two-level local government model, the commune has yet to appoint or re-appoint any management staff for its public educational institutions. Furthermore, teacher recruitment has become significantly more challenging. Although the province issued temporary guidance on staff recruitment and management of civil servants and public employees, the allocation of official teacher quotas to communes only began recently.

It was revealed through observations that schools in the former Dinh Quan District are also facing teacher shortages due to disruptions in the recruitment work during the initial period of implementing the two-level local government model. The educational institutions from preschools to lower secondary schools were transferred from the former district-level Departments of Education and Training to commune-level management. The slow issuance of recruitment procedures and quota allocations led to a hiring hiatus. Some schools, forced to hire teachers on temporary contracts while awaiting permanent staffing, are still operating without a budget source to pay their salaries.

In Tam Hiep Ward, which now manages 21 public schools following a merger of several smaller wards, namely Tam Hiep, Tan Tien, Tan Mai, Tam Hoa, and Binh Da.

Vice Chairwoman of Tam Hiep Ward People’s Committee Luu Thi Hang stated they are urgently working to finalize management staff appointments using the temporary guidelines from the provincial People’s Committee. However, the ward still lacks approximately 100 teachers but was only allocated 20 official quotas, meaning the shortage of Music, Fine Arts, and Physical Education teachers in particular, cannot be fully resolved.

Easing constraints for localities

Local officials across the province admit that managing educational facilities under the new two-level model is a broad and new responsibility for commune-level authorities. Consequently, the initial phase has been marked by confusion and difficulty, with staff appointments and teacher recruitment being only part of the challenge.

Province-wide shortfall: 4,581 teacher quotas unfilled

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, following the merger of the former Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai provinces, the newly unified Dong Nai province now has a total of 39,223 teacher quotas. The number of teaching positions that remain unfilled stands at 4,581. The vacancies are distributed as follows: Kindergartens: 1,763; Primary Schools: 1,706; Lower Secondary Schools: 674; Upper Secondary School: 417; Continuing Education: 21.

A People's Committee Vice Chairman of a border commune noted that the appointment of management staff and recruitment of teachers is an entirely new task for local authorities operating under the new model. The biggest difficulty for the Commune People's Committee is the lack of specialized personnel with expertise in educational management and knowledge of the appointment and recruitment procedures.

“Now that temporary appointment guidelines and quotas have been allocated, we urge the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Education and Training to provide additional written instructions or online training on appointment and recruitment procedures for communes and wards to ensure proper implementation and quality," the official requested.

According to several school principals across the province, the teacher shortage severely hampers school activities and demands an urgent solution. Due to the lack of recruitment procedures and official quotas, schools are forced to temporarily address the issue by hiring teachers on contracts. However, this is highly inconvenient: "Recruiting with the allocated quotas would eliminate the need for schools to balance salary funds," said one principal. However, assigning duties to permanent staff provides more assurance, as contract teachers "consider their duty over when the lesson ends."

Tran Cong Nghi, former Head of Long Khanh City Education and Training Department, now Head of the Party Building Committee of Long Khanh Ward, stressed that while the province has issued temporary guidelines, new appointments remain difficult due to the absence of formal instructions on planning and new appointments. "Long Khanh Ward has only been able to conduct re-appointments for eligible or urgently needed cases," he said. Localities urgently need the province to issue a formal, unified, and synchronous appointment procedure.

Beyond sufficient management staff and teacher quotas, many schools also called for enhanced training and attractive policies for teachers in specialized subjects. Recruiting teachers for Fine Arts, Music, Informatics, and Physical Education is particularly challenging due to the low number of pedagogical graduates in these fields. The schools also want regulations finalized soon to allow them to connect with external professionals in music, arts, and sports to teach these subjects, thereby both simultaneously addressing the shortage of teaching staff and enriching the implementation of the 2018 General Education Program.

By Cong Nghia - Translated by M.Nguyet, Thu Ha