Ministry urges for more autonomy for schools

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha has said schools in regions with favourable conditions will be given more autonomy.

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha has said the government will continue giving subsidies to the nurseries and schools to keep tuition affordable.

However, schools in regions with favourable conditions will be given more autonomy so that they can expand and improve.

  

Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha

Nha talked about creeping privatisation through ‘autonomy’. Teachers for public schools are mostly hired by the district departments of education. Sometimes, they hire a large group of teachers at the same time then assign them to specific schools later. This has sometimes led to teacher shortages in some schools.

"Schools can actively assess their staff quality and hire teachers when they are given more autonomy. Anyone can be fired if they failed to fulfil the contract within two years. This will be a huge improvement," Nha said.

The programme will be piloted first before being implemented widely. Nha went on to say that many private schools have shown great recruiting methods and Vietnam should follow the market, putting the teacher quality first.