A dozen teachers at a Ho Chi Minh City rehabilitation center for children with disabilities went on strike on Monday to demand that its deputy director step down, accusing her of causing “internal conflict,” applying a “rigid work style” without “humanity,” and “hurting parents.”
Fourteen of the 19 teachers at the HCMC Center for Rehabilitation for Handicapped Children struck at its facility in District 3, holding papers that contained statements against Dam Thi Tam, the center’s deputy director.
The papers stated that “we cannot work with deputy director Dam Thi Tam anymore” because “we cannot accept a person as our leader who lacks both conduct and qualifications and who was once disciplined by the HCMC Department of Education and Training.”
The teachers told Tuoi Tre that they wanted the education department to transfer Tam to another place so they could resume their work.
“We hope that department officials will resolve this problem soon since we cannot continue working under these circumstances,” Doan Nguyen Tran, an experienced teacher, said.
The teachers have lodged a complaint to city education officials that Tam “aroused internal conflict and caused a split in the organization, making teachers anxious and thus lessening the efficiency of their teaching” since she joined the facility last year.
‘She is lacking in qualifications, experience, and humanity’
The deputy director is accused of requesting a mother who recently gave birth to continue to bring her older child to the facility even after she had asked for some days off, according to the complaint.
Tam also required a family to hand in a form to end their recently deceased child’s rehabilitation at the center while they were busy preparing for their child’s funeral, the strikers said in the eight-page document.
She disrupted classes by asking teachers to speak with her while they were teaching in the classroom, they said, adding that such disruption negatively influenced the psychology of the disabled children.
The teachers complained that they had been told by Tam to work overtime “for no reason,” which poorly affected their “health and family.”
Her work style and bossy attitude have caused unnecessary stress for the teachers, they said.
“She has caused difficulty for us in addition to hurting parents because she is lacking in qualifications, experience, and humanity, which are all needed when teaching disabled children,” Tran, the teacher, pointed out.
Some parents also joined the teachers in criticizing Tam’s “attitude” and “rigid work style.”
Tam was named deputy director in May 2013, according to Nguyen Thanh Tam, the center’s director.
“My teachers have complained that she is pedantic and rigid at work,” the director said.
‘Everything in accordance with the rules’
In response, the deputy director said that she has tried to fulfill her responsibilities since she was appointed to the position.
She admitted that her new management style has somewhat affected the teachers as they had been accustomed to a different style of management.
“However, I believe that I have done everything in accordance with the rules and educational standards,” Tam asserted. “Time will prove this.”
The accused was removed from her post as director of a further education center in District 8 in April of last year following similar allegations by the teachers there.
The city education department says it will work with center management officials and its teachers on Tuesday to put the facility back into operation soon.
Max: 1500 characters
There are no comments yet. Be the first to comment.