Great joy
On Vietnamese Teachers' Day, November 20 this year, in addition to the spiritual gifts sent by students and parents, the joy of teacher Le Thi Hang (Thanh Hoa) also comes from the information that the Draft Law on Teachers was officially submitted to the National Assembly for the first time at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly.
Ms. Hang graduated and was assigned to teach at a secondary school in the province since 1998. At present, after 26 years of work, Ms. Hang's salary coefficient is 5.02, equivalent to a salary of more than 11.7 million VND. In addition, each month, she also receives additional allowances (class allowance, seniority allowance, etc.), and actually receives about more than 16 million VND.
According to Ms. Hang, this salary has been significantly improved since July 1, 2024 - the time when the basic salary was raised from 1.8 to 2.34 million VND. However, in reality, if we say that we can live peacefully on our profession and wholeheartedly devote ourselves to the education sector, it is not possible.
As for teacher Luu Thi Chinh Phuong - Vice Principal of Doan Ket Primary School (Long Bien, Hanoi), the concern comes from taking care of the material life of the teaching staff, especially young teachers. Having worked in the profession for more than 23 years, Ms. Phuong has witnessed many cases where teachers have to find other ways because of the hardship and low salary.
Before taking the position of education administrator, Ms. Chinh Phuong was also a young teacher, receiving a meager salary that was not enough to cover living expenses. Therefore, more than anyone else, Ms. Chinh Phuong understands the hardships and concerns of teachers.
“I hope that the draft Law on Teachers with many new breakthroughs related to salary, benefits, changes in recruitment... when passed, will help improve the lives of teachers, and at the same time, attract good pedagogical students to apply and work in the education sector,” Ms. Phuong shared.
Many expectations for the Teachers Law project
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the Law on Teachers was developed with a new perspective on the approach, shifting from management mainly by administrative tools to management by expertise and quality; from personnel management to human resource management to comprehensively develop the teaching force, in line with the profound and comprehensive innovation from the education management system to school administration.
This is also the first time that the rights and obligations of teachers have been clearly, completely and systematically defined. Teachers are required to constantly develop and are protected through the rights of teachers and what individuals and organizations are not allowed to do to teachers in the direction of increasing the initiative, creativity and protection of teachers in their professional activities.
In addition, the draft law also standardizes and improves the quality of the teaching staff through a system of titles and professional standards for teachers with standards according to the requirements of professional capacity associated with each level of education and training; new points related to recruitment; policies on mobilization, secondment, transfer, etc.
In particular, the salary policy for teachers is prioritized. In particular, the basic salary according to the teacher salary scale is ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system; teachers are entitled to preferential allowances for their profession and other allowances depending on the nature of the work, the region, and the provisions of law. Teachers continue to receive seniority allowances until the salary policy according to Resolution 27-NQ/TW is implemented.
Policies to attract highly qualified people, talented people, excellent graduates, young scientists, and people with special talents to participate in recruitment as teachers; teachers to work in particularly difficult areas such as ethnic minority areas, mountainous areas, coastal areas, and islands; specific regulations on teachers' retirement age... are also mentioned in the draft Law on Teachers.
“The quality of an education system depends largely on the quality of the teaching staff. The quality of teachers depends on many factors. In addition to the efforts of each individual teacher, the working environment and policies for teachers (regarding recruitment, use, treatment, honor, protection, development, etc.) play an important role.
Based on that awareness, over the past long time, the Ministry of Education and Training has been actively, proactively, and persistently preparing theoretical and practical bases to propose and receive permission from competent authorities to develop a separate Law regulating teachers to meet the expectations of 1.6 million teachers working in educational institutions nationwide" - Minister Nguyen Kim Son assessed.
Hope the law will be approved as soon as possible to put into practice.
Dr. Hoang Ngoc Vinh - former Director of the Department of Vocational Education (Ministry of Education and Training): I expect that the Draft Law on Teachers will receive thorough discussion and frank comments from National Assembly deputies. At the same time, the drafting committee needs to absorb opinions from the National Assembly, public opinion and the press to be able to complete the draft with the best quality. Hopefully, the law will be approved as soon as possible with the lowest number of submissions, so that it can quickly be put into practice, effectively supporting the teaching staff and the education sector.
