Need to replace with human resource management model

According to Dr. Pham Do Nhat Tien, besides the outstanding results and advantages of the work of building the teaching staff, in recent years there have been persistent shortcomings in the motivation, capacity and structure of the team in response to the requirements of innovation, especially the shortage of teachers, including both overall shortage and local surplus and shortage.

“The problem of teachers, although recognized 20 years ago, has not yet been satisfactorily solved. There are two basic reasons. One is that the regime and policies on teachers have not been moved in line with the increasing demands on teachers, making the teaching profession less attractive. Two is that the State management of teachers has not been innovated to match the new perception of teachers and the teaching profession,” said Dr. Pham Do Nhat Tien.

Regarding the teacher management model in Vietnam, Dr. Pham Do Nhat Tien said that in reality, in the current unified state management of education, the Ministry of Education and Training only has the right to unify professional management of education; the Ministry of Home Affairs unifies the management of education personnel; the Ministry of Finance unifies the financial management of education.

That is, although the Ministry of Education and Training has responsibility before the State and society in implementing State management of education, it has no power in decisions related to the two most important resources for implementation: money and people.

Such division of responsibilities between the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Home Affairs in State management of teachers is a characteristic of the human resource management model, consistent with the traditional State management model of education when the State plays the role of both the helmsman and the boatman.

However, according to Mr. Tien, for more than 20 years now, in the context of the formation and development of the education market, when the State management model of education in our country has gradually shifted to a new public management model, teachers must be considered an important resource that needs to be adjusted in a constructive legal framework, then the above human resource management model is no longer suitable.

Dr. Pham Do Nhat Tien said that this management model is one of the main reasons why the problem of building a team of teachers with sufficient quantity and reasonable scale has not yet been satisfactorily solved; at the same time, he proposed that it should be replaced by a human resource management model.

“In which, the Ministry of Home Affairs shall preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs to advise and submit to competent authorities to decide on the number and assign staffing quotas to the education sector, and monitor and evaluate the implementation. The Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall be responsible for allocating staffing quotas to ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial People's Committees, and directing the implementation within the scope of assigned tasks and powers,” proposed Dr. Pham Do Nhat Tien.

Delegating the authority to regulate the teaching staff to the education sector

Through the reality of local education management, Mr. Vu A Bang - Vice Chairman of Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee said that the State management of teachers still has some limitations and inadequacies.

In particular, the State management of teachers is currently carried out by many Laws (Law on Civil Servants, Law on Public Employees, Law on Education, Law on Vocational Education, Law on Labor...) leading to difficulties in the process of research, deployment and implementation at the grassroots level. Some documents do not clearly define the concept, scope of regulation and subjects of regulation.

The management of payroll still overlaps between the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Education. The Department of Education is assigned the total payroll while the authority for recruitment belongs to the Department of Home Affairs. The streamlining of payroll is not linked to the targets…

From the shortcomings and limitations, the Vice Chairman of Dien Bien Provincial People's Committee proposed to consider decentralizing the management of teachers and educational managers to ensure consistency in recruitment, use and management of teachers from the central to local levels.

In particular, the authority is assigned to the Department of Education and Training to preside over the management of teachers at the provincial level, restructure the organization, increase the number of state management staff for the district-level Department of Education and Training; in case of necessity, regulating teachers nationwide is under the authority of the Ministry of Education and Training.