The public have recently raised concerns over lacking teachers in special education field that meets the unique needs of a child with a disability. The situation is worse when number of students of special education teacher schools who quit the field after graduating has increased.
Moreover, fewer students want to enter colleges or universities to become teachers for kids with disabilities.
Explaining reasons of the situation, Dr. Le Thi Minh Ha, Head of the Special Education Faculty of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, said that jobs at special schools can’t get salaries from the state budget because the government doesn’t have wage policy for teachers working out of the special school system.
Budget-crunched schools in districts say that they cannot afford payments for teachers, she said.
Therefore, schools that want teachers for special education classes must pay them from the schools’ budget. Lacking salary policy for special education teachers explains why only a few schools dare to employ these teachers, while most graduates must work for private schools or left.
Since its establishment, the Special Education Faculty has trained seven training courses and 110 graduates have received degrees. Along with regular training courses, the faculty has held five in-service courses since 2006.
However, the country still faces shortage of teachers for educating kids with a disability as there are over 100 educational establishments for disabled children, including 30 special schools for the disabled in HCM City, both state-owned and non-state institutions. These schools are thirsty for teachers.
Nationally, the rate of diagnosed cases of autism spectrum disorders has nearly skyrocketed in recent years. It is estimated that approximately 1 in every 10 children in the country are born with autism.
In such circumstance, this is a big challenge for the society in general and the sector in particular.
Moreover, there are very few experienced teachers meanwhile managers in schools for disabled pupils are not trained to deal with such kids. Furthermore, these schools are short of medical workers who evaluate progress of kids but instructors who don’t have both training and experience in working with autistic children have to do.
The government should tackle the problem by issuing proper policy for teachers to encourage more students to choose the faculty as their major, Ms. Ha added.
