A class at Luong The Vinh High School in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City

“A contracted teacher like me must work harder to survive in this bustling city,” she said.

T. is teaching at a centre for continuing education and two private schools in Tan Binh District to lead a hand-to-mouth life.

But without tenure, she does not know what her future would hold since T. may lose her job anytime.

“I may be dismissed whenever they want,” T. sighed.

A contracted teacher at Luong The Vinh High School in District 1, Nguyen Huynh Kim Ngan, like T., is now teaching at three other schools for a meager living: two kindergartens in Districts 8 and 10, and the other high school in District 1.

However, the best she can make per month is a mere VND3 million ($144), just enough for food, fuel, and rent.

“I am still asking my parents for tuition for a degree course I am following,” she lamented.

In September, dozens of preschool teachers in Thanh Hoa Province’s Nhu Thanh District, who could not get tenure after years of teaching, gave up their job to protest low pay.

Given inflationary pressures, thousands in the province are struggling with a small stipend of less than $1 a day while others earn no more than $24 a month.

“Even breakfast is a luxury to us considering current salary,” Pham Thi Son, a teacher at Mau Lam Kindergarten, moaned.

N., a contracted teacher in the district, revealed untenured teachers there had to do many jobs on the side to support their families, including selling stationery and picking fruits for a price.

Many untenured English teachers in the northern provinces of Nam Dinh and Hai Phong endure the same ordeal.

They have been teaching for long, with some being the profession for 20 years, but failed to get a permanent place in public schools, thus receiving modest salaries and leading an unstable life.

“[But] I have to try for my students even though the teaching career cannot support my life,” one of the teachers said.