HCMC education officials explain why communes are not yet hiring teachers themselves

Ho Chi Minh City has recruited 3,909 education employees for the 2025-26 school year, but commune-level governments are not yet hiring teachers on their own. The education department says the new local administrations need time to stabilize before they can take on that responsibility.

At a September 3 explanation session held by the Standing Committee of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council, Deputy Director Tran Thi Ngoc Chau said the two-tier local government model began operating on July 1, 2025. The city then had to prepare urgently for the new school year while newly reorganized commune-level bodies were still getting up and running.

The Department of Education and Training therefore worked with the departments of Home Affairs and Justice to advise the city government to authorize its director to organize teacher recruitment. That arrangement allowed schools to receive staff quickly. The department expects to finish the recruitment process by the end of October.

Current law allows a department director to authorize a commune-level government or its chair to recruit teachers. Any delegation must specify the duties, scope, duration and procedures, and must match the receiving authority’s capacity. The education department said recruitment involves more than collecting applications. It requires coordinated planning for staffing needs, teacher structures by grade and subject, eligibility checks, recruitment councils, examinations or selection, teaching practice and the handling of complaints.

Officials also warned that giving every commune its own recruitment process could fragment hiring, create uneven standards and make it harder to move teachers between areas. Some localities lack staff with specialized expertise in education management and civil-service recruitment. In places with only one primary school and a need for one or two teachers, creating a recruitment council could also consume disproportionate resources.

The department said teacher shortages, particularly in areas that have been slow to recruit or struggle to attract workers because of local socioeconomic conditions, are driving calls for decentralization. It still supports delegation in principle. Once education facilities are reorganized and stabilized, the department plans to assess each locality’s capacity and advise on transferring recruitment authority to commune chairs.