Education authorities are scrambling to address the issue, but they face challenges from both a lack of available educators and conflicting recruitment regulations.
To ‘patch the gap’, provinces are resorting to temporary measures, such as reassigning teachers to handle multiple subjects or combined classes. At the same time, efforts to recruit new teachers have been largely unsuccessful, as new hires face complicated and overlapping bureaucratic hurdles. The ongoing shortage poses a serious challenge to providing quality education for students across the region.
Class mergers not possible, staffing changes unresolved
With just one week leaving before the 2025–2026 school year begins, Vien An Dong 1 Primary School in Phan Ngoc Hien Commune of Ca Mau Province still has not filled its teaching positions. Principal Pham Viet Quan was moaning that the school is currently short of nine teachers, with English being the most lacking subject.
According to him, under the 2018 General Education Program, the school must provide English classes from Grade 3 to Grade 5, equivalent to nine English-teaching classes.
In accordance with current educational regulations, each class is mandated to receive four English instruction periods per week, resulting in a total requirement of 36 English periods across the school. At present, the institution employs only one English teacher, who is unable to assume additional teaching responsibilities due to her commitment to caring for an infant under the age of twelve months.
He further noted that, while teachers of other subjects may substitute for one another, English instruction necessitates a qualified specialist. Consequently, the school is facing significant challenges in identifying a viable solution to this staffing shortfall.
Cha La Kindergarten in Tran Phan Commune of Ca Mau Province is facing a similar situation. Principal Tran Hong Nhung shared that for the 2025–2026 school year, the school has 10 classes but only 13 teachers, leaving a shortage of three. The school had already reported the issue to the communal People’s Committee and the provincial Department of Education and Training at the end of the 2024–2025 school year, but no additional teachers have been assigned.
According to the Ca Mau Department of Education and Training, more than 1,970 teaching positions need to be filled across the province for the 2025–2026 school year. Of these, over 1,676 positions are at commune-level schools, with the remainder at schools under the department’s direct management. The teacher shortage is most acute at the preschool and primary levels, especially in schools in remote and disadvantaged areas.
In Vinh Long Province, the latest statistics from the Department of Education and Training show a shortage of 1,866 teachers for the 2025–2026 school year. The most severe gap is at the preschool level with 816 teachers short, followed by lower secondary schools with 427, primary schools with 334, and upper secondary schools (including continuing education) with 289.
"The teacher shortage not only creates pressure in managing class sizes but also affects teaching quality. Under the new general education program, which emphasizes competency-based learning, the role of each teacher becomes even more crucial. If the shortage persists, larger class sizes, declining teaching quality, and difficulties in implementing full-day schooling will be unavoidable", a representative of the Vinh Long Department of Education and Training expressed with concern.
In several other Mekong Delta provinces such as An Giang, Can Tho, and Dong Thap, a paradox has emerged. While some schools face shortages, others have a surplus of teachers. The principal of a lower secondary school in An Giang Province shared: "Overall staffing compared to the number of classes is not excessive. However, the school is lacking teachers in Physical Education and English, while in Literature and Mathematics we have three surplus positions. For months, we have tried contacting other schools to arrange staff exchanges, but without success."
Why is it so difficult to recruit teachers?
Director La Thi Thuy of the Vinh Long Department of Education and Training said that in response to the severe teacher shortage for the new school year, the province has issued decisions allocating payroll quotas for each unit paid from the state budget.
Based on this, the department is implementing three measures including transferring teachers from surplus to deficit areas, organizing recruitment for public school teachers within the assigned staffing quota, and signing labor contracts under quotas approved by the provincial People’s Council if shortages remain.
However, she emphasized that these are only short-term solutions. In the long run, the province is introducing incentive policies to ensure timely recruitment and creating mechanisms to attract pedagogy graduates to return and work locally.
Leaders of several education departments in the Mekong Delta noted that teacher recruitment is being hampered by overlapping regulations. Specifically, Government Decree No. 142/2025/ND-CP, issued on June 12, 2025, grants recruitment authority to provincial education departments. Meanwhile, the Law on Organization of Local Government, passed on June 16, 2025, assigns that authority to chairpersons of commune people’s committees. This overlap has left localities struggling to develop compliant recruitment plans for education sector staff.
A representative of Phan Ngoc Hien Commune of Ca Mau Province said that it has proposed that clear guidance be issued soon to define the authority between the Department of Education and Training and commune-level People’s Committee chairpersons regarding the appointment of school administrators and the recruitment of teachers at commune-level educational institutions.
Director Nguyen Van Nguyen of the Ca Mau Department of Education and Training stated that the province will review current teacher numbers, propose additional staffing, and address shortages, particularly in implementing the policy of full-day schooling in general education.
At the same time, measures will be strengthened to reassign and second teachers from surplus to deficit areas, as well as arrange cross-school teaching where needed, to maximize the efficiency of the existing workforce. The province is also considering issuing regulations and implementing a policy to contract singers, artists, and professional athletes to teach specialized subjects such as Music, Fine Arts, and Physical Education at general schools.
In addition to the teacher shortage, inadequate infrastructure is another pressing challenge for many Mekong Delta localities in the 2025–2026 school year. Following the merger of administrative units, schools were remained in their existing state and transferred to commune-level management. While the overall school network remains sufficient to sustain teaching and learning, numerous persist. Many facilities are deteriorating, there is a lack of subject-specific classrooms, functional rooms, playgrounds, and sports fields, and teaching equipment does not yet meet the requirements of the new general education program.
Provincial budgets for education remain limited, with funding mainly directed toward new rural communes and urgent projects, leaving many other schools especially those in severe disrepair without investment. This situation directly slows progress toward building schools that meet national standards and undermines efforts to improve the overall quality of education.
