Head of the Department of Preschool Education Nguyen Ba Minh said that, the number of preschoolers is expected 5,473,223.
In the school year 2018-2019, 107 additional preschools had been built, bringing up the number of preschools countrywide to 15,501 including 3,036 private daycare centers.
Statistically, there are around 447,065 teaching staffs in preschools, lacking 49,177 teachers much less than the real demand.
To solve the problem, the Ministry of Education and Training last year petitioned to the Prime Minister to recruit additional 20,300 kindergarten teachers for 17 provinces that have an increase in preschoolers and five highlands provinces.
However, Mr. Minh admitted that there has remained difficulties in the preschool education including the dearth of schools in crowded residential quarters, industrial parks and export processing zones.
Still 1,695 privately-run daycare centers have been operated without permission and some other facilities have low quality.
Since the sector has not been able to recruit more teaching staff teachers face pressure for working overtime with low pays. Consequently, many nursery teachers quitted their jobs.
Education Minister Phung Xuan Nha said that the amended law on education includes improvement of teachers’ capability in kindergarten. This move raised not only teaching quality but also their treatment policies.
Despite this, the government should continue to amend policies on payment and bonus for teacher.
The Minister asked local governments to tackle the shortage crisis of preschool teachers in the school year 2019-2020, saying that local departments of education and training aliasing with local administrations to recruit more teachers as regular staffs to ensure them.
Education authority ought to increase supervision to close illegal or low-quality private daycare centers and improve teachers’ ethics to prevent children abuse.
