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Many preschools in Ho Chi Minh City suffer from a lack of formally trained health workers, so vice principals and teachers must take charge, and thus allow even non-prescription medicine into their institutions.

H., a mother of a four-year-old kid in Phu Nhuan District, admitted that she sometimes sends tablets to her child’s teachers at school without any prescription from a doctor.

“The teachers frequently compromise and let my child take them on my own instructions,” she said.

The mother of another preschooler, enrolled in a kindergarten in Binh Thanh District, revealed that the teachers there are in charge of handling pills for the kids from parents since the school does not have any medical workers on its staff.

It is hard for schools to recruit skilled health workers because of the low salary allocated to this position, a principal in Phu Nhuan District explained.

“Many kindergartens have named their vice principals and teachers as replacements after sending them to crash courses designed for school medical workers,” he said. “But most vice principals and teachers are busy enough with their teaching and managerial duties.”

Indeed teachers have proved awkward, due to an absence of expertise, when they discover that their kids are under the weather. 

According to a recent report, a preschool teacher in Binh Tan District allowed a kid to take sleeping pills without consulting the parents or doctors.

Teachers may also make mistakes when they give tablets to kids, the principal in Phu Nhuan divulged.

“Mistakes are possible because many teachers tend to receive medication without writing down its name and which kid it is for,” he said.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has demanded in writing that local kindergartens make sure they take medicine from parents with a prescription attached.

It also appointed a group of health inspectors who are tasked with checking the healthcare work at municipal schools between May 13 and 24.