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“It was a shame when I was required to sign a document they presented in front of my students,” T., a literature teacher in Hanoi, complained. School officials, local education board inspectors, and even police officers had ‘caught’ her in the act of running an after-school class at home without a license.

T. is just an example. Many other teachers have been humiliated this way, simply because they failed to prepare the necessary paperwork for their teaching.

The Ministry of Education and Training recently ruled that teachers must obtain a permit before giving after-school classes outside their school, in a bid to prevent the teachers from charging their students extra fees by forcing them to take up these additional studies.

“I agree that I violated this ruling, but being ‘caught red-handed’ like this was an utter embarrassment,” T. said.

H., another Hanoi teacher, recollected that she found herself in the same situation when she was contracted by an unauthorized training center to teach an after-school class.

“I was asked to sign a paper that recorded my ‘wrongdoing’ before my students,” she recalled. “I found it really unpleasant, and that incident haunted my mind for a long time.”

A teacher in the central province of Phu Yen said he was terribly depressed for several days after provincial education authorities suddenly turned up to ask for a license when he was leading a tutoring class at his home.

He nearly cried upon seeing the authorities try to prove he was guilty by questioning his students, the teacher said.

“I felt really stressful as my students kept talking about it days later,” the teacher revealed. “I now feel very sorry for the teaching profession, one that Vietnamese consider the most honorable career, as we are being stalked like criminals.”

“Not dangerous criminals to be caught red-handed”

Another Phu Yen teacher protested that it is unkind and unfair to treat teachers that way because they are “knowledge-seeders, not dangerous criminals to be caught red-handed.”

A parent in Hanoi agreed with the teacher, adding that forcing teachers to sign such documents is demeaning them in the presence of their students.

“Is there a better way than tracking them like smugglers like this?” the parent wondered.

In response, an education official said teachers who run additional courses outside their school should get used to these types of abrupt inspections.

“We think checking after-school classes at their home is like tracking the quality of their teaching during formal classes,” the official said.

Many teachers in the capital city said they have closed down their after-school classes to avoid getting into similar humiliating circumstances.

Minute salaries

H., the Hanoi teacher, said that many have relied on those extra classes for a side income as they cannot live solely on their meager salaries.

Some music teachers even choose to be wedding singers, while several others opt for selling groceries or providing meals at school canteens to earn some more money, she disclosed.

Local teachers now receive a modest average income of VND3 million (US$144) to VND3.5 million ($168) a month, whereas teaching novices are currently paid a mere VND2 million ($96), said a recent report by a national society of former teachers.

The report added that a teacher with more than 13 years of experience can only earn as much as VND5 million ($240) per month, while a fresh university graduate will pocket that amount if he chooses to work in the private sector.