HCM City reportedly lacks some 2,000 teachers for preschools. It needs 1,000 more teachers more every year to satisfy the demands of the city. Nevertheless, the education establishments that produce teachers for preschools are not allowed to expand their training programs.

Dr. Nguyen Viet Ngoan, President of Saigon University, warned that the situation will be even more serious given that the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has forced universities to end their 2-year training systems.

Previously, many universities could organize education courses at different levels, including 2-year training (equivalent to intermediate or vocational school), 3-year training (junior college) or 4-5-year training (university). However, MOET has told universities to focus on higher education as their main task, while the 2-year and 3-year training programs are the jobs of vocational schools or junior colleges.

The ministry has also decided to cut down the number of students enrolled in pedagogical schools every year, following reports about overabundance of pedagogical schools’ graduates.

Ngoan said that the decision may prove to be reasonable for other provinces and cities, but it isn’t for HCM City, which has seriously lacked teachers for the last several years.

There are currently three institutions which train preschool teachers, including the HCM City University of Education, Saigon University and the Central Pedagogical Junior College. All of them wish to get the permission to train more teachers, but they can’t.

Saigon University in 2013 got approval from the HCM City People’s Committee on its plan to organize 2-year training courses to produce preschool teachers. However, MOET has not replied to the proposal.

The HCM City Central Pedagogical Junior College enrolls 400 students for its 3-year training courses and 120 students for 2-year training courses. Dr. Le Van Tien from the college said that even if his school produced 2,000 teachers every year, this would still not be enough to satisfy demand.

However, Tien said it is very difficult to convince MOET that the school can meet the requirements in material facilities, teaching staff and other conditions to expand its training programs.

The HCM City University of Education has been asked by the city’s education department to train more teachers for preschools. However, according to the school’s President Nguyen Kim Hong, it is an impossible mission because the school, like other universities, cannot organize 2-year training courses. The city education department would have to ask MOET for a special mechanism  for HCM City.

Ngoan from Saigon University pointed out that the lack of preschool teachers can also be blamed on the currently applied recruitment mechanism. The state-owned schools in the city only recruit the teachers who have permanent residences in HCM City.

Also according to Ngoan, a recent survey has found that the majority of graduates who remain unemployed are the ones who are not the city’s dwellers. “It is necessary to think of a recruitment mechanism which allows us to find the best teachers for schools,” he said.