Students at HCM City University of Education visit a job fair 

Speaking at a meeting on January 22 on contest and enrolment plans for 2013, Associate Prof and Dr. Hoang Van Can, Deputy Principle of HCM City University of Education said the country should urgently reform teacher training institutions. He suggested there were too many forms of teacher training at public, private and people-founded institutions.

“Teacher training should not be as popular as it is currently. It’s not right that any institution that doesn’t specialise in teacher training could be involved in such education. Too many unqualified institutions are providing teacher training, which are to blame for falling training quality,” Can emphasised.

He proposed that the government rearrange and assign specific tasks for particular education universities.

“Major education institutions at central levels should be assigned to train teachers for colleges or high-quality vocational training institutions. Education universities at local level should focus on training human resources for their localities. Education universities should be allowed to conduct enrolment by themselves in order to increase teacher quality,” he recommended.

Nguyen Xuan Ngoc, Director of Lam Dong Provincial Department of Education and Training agreed saying that too many localities were providing teacher training which had resulted in substandard quality.

Phan Van Dung, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Provincial Department of Education and Training said the quality of graduates passing teacher training was substandard.

“Among 600 teachers applied to the department for a job last year, 100 had good results at their schools but many find it hard to work at schools for gifted students. We are compelled to enforce regulations that teachers who fail to do their job well after one-year probation aren’t recruited,” Dung noted.

Many teachers who have certificates of education have poor professional competence. In response the department has decided to conduct inspections as many received a certificate after just one month of training, he added.

Under the tasks set for the 2012-2013 school year, the Ministry of Education of Training plans to revise a scheme on the education sector’s human resource training in order to increase teacher quality.