Ministry tells pedagogy schools to merge As only 10 teacher training establishments are under the control of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), it is difficult to control the number of teachers being trained.    MOET has sent a dispatch to provincial and municipal authorities, requesting them to reconsider teacher training plans, based on their teaching staff and facilities. The dispatch was sent after the ministry discovered an oversupply of teachers in many provinces and cities. A report showed that 70,000 pedagogy school graduates were jobless. Therefore, it is necessary for pedagogy schools to gradually scale down the training from 2017 to reduce the unemployment rate. According to Bui Van Quan, president of Thu Do University, pedagogy schools will produce 19,200 primary school teachers every year by 2018, 18,700 secondary school and 23,000 high school teachers. As only 10 teacher training establishments are under the control of the Ministry of Education and Training, it is difficult to control the number of teachers being trained.  Vietnam won’t not use all the teachers by 2020, even if the ratio of students to teachers increases to the level equal to that in developed countries. By that time, Vietnam would have an excess of 41,000 primary school teachers, 12,200 secondary school teachers and 19,600 high school teachers. The excess of teachers is attributed to the over-expansion of teacher training establishments. Pedagogy schools have mushroomed, while many junior colleges (3-year training) have been upgraded into universities (4-year training), though they cannot satisfy the requirement on teaching staff and material facilities. Nguyen Ngoc Vu, director of MOET’s Planning & Finance Department, said restructuring pedagogy schools is the only solution to settle the problem of teacher supply. Also according to Vu, MOET every year gives warning about the teacher overabundance and requests schools to restrict the enrollment scale. However, MOET does not grant enrollment ‘quotas’ to schools anymore, and pedagogy schools determine how many students to enroll after considering their capability. As for other training establishments, they will either be merged with each other, or become affiliates of universities. In some cases, community schools will be established to provide disciplinary training. At present, only 10 schools, or 10 percent of the total pedagogy schools in the country, are put under MOET’s management. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to control the enrollment scale by setting up the numbers of students to be enrolled in schools every year. In nearly all cities and provinces, except Dak Nong, there is at least one teacher training establishment. Nineteen training establishments are located in the northern mountainous and mid-land areas, 26 in Red River Delta and 14 in Mekong River Delta. Besides, there are 23 training establishments in the northern part of the central region and coastal areas in the southern part, eight in the Central Highlands and 18 in the eastern part of the southern region. NLD