The teachers who are afraid of summer holiday

While state employees are jealous of teachers’ long holiday in summer, a lot of teachers are afraid of the holiday because they cannot earn money in summer.

While the colleagues all over the country are spending their time to travel and relax, a lot of teachers are hurrying to look for part time jobs to earn some money which can help them live from hand to mouth in summer.

The teachers in Vietnam can be divided into two groups – the ones working as regular members of the personnel, who receive monthly salaries from the State budget, and the ones working under labor contracts signed with the schools.

Of the latter group’s teachers, the ones who have long term labor contracts with schools are considered lucky workers, because they can get monthly pay from the provincial budget. Meanwhile, the teachers working under short term labor contracts only receive modest salaries paid by schools whose main income comes from tuitions.

As for the teachers, summer holiday means no-money time, because when students stay at home, teachers become temporary unemployed.

The three teachers of the Le Mao Primary School in Nghe An province, who are working under short term labor contracts, get no pay in summer, because the school’s income is not enough to pay them.

Dang Quang Canh, Headmaster of the Le Mao School, said the pay to the three teachers has been sourced from the tuitions collected from students. However, with the modest tuition of 100,000 dong a month, the school does not have any money left after it pays for the basic needs. Since students do not go to school in summer and they do not pay tuitions, teachers have to sit idle during that time.

“We understand the difficult conditions of the teachers, but we have not found any solution to settle the problem,” he said.

The teachers of the Nghi Phu Primary School in Vinh City seem to be luckier than their colleagues at Le Mao, because they still can receive one month pay in summer.

Nguyen Thi Hien, can receive 830,000 dong a month for her work at the Phuc Thanh Secondary School, the sum of money which is just enough to feed her for 10 days. However, Hien even cannot get the modest salary these days, because students do not go to school and they do not pay tuitions. 

According to Nguyen Xuan Sinh, Chair of Vinh City’s People’s Committee, said 119 teachers in the city still have not become official members of the personnel to be able to receive salaries from the state budget, even though they have been working for a long time. 

Sinh said the city’s authorities can employ no more than 20-30 teachers as official employees a year, which means that it would take some more years to accept all the 119 teachers, during which the city would not sign any long term contracts more. Local schools would recruit teachers to work under short term contracts after considering their financial capability

Students stay off school, teachers go in for trade 

Le Na, a teacher of Vinh Tan Primary School said that she receives two million dong a month, which is just enough to pay for milk and clothes for the two children. Meanwhile, the spending on other basic needs depends on the husband’s income. However, since her husband’s income is limited, Na has to fasten her belt in summer, when cannot earn money.

Tran Duy Linh, a teacher of the Dai Son primary school, said he has to undertake extra jobs to earn his living. One of the “extra jobs” of Linh is working as buffalo trader.

Linh calls this his extra job, because he prefers to introduce himself as a teacher. However, in fact, trading buffalo is the main source of income for his family.

Source: Giao duc VN