Frustration because rights are "ignored"
Mr. Xuan presented that according to regulations, the teaching quota for junior high school teachers is 37 weeks (35 weeks of actual teaching + 2 weeks of educational activities)/1 school year, each week is 19 periods, so teachers must teach a total of 703 periods/school year. However, in reality, in 35 weeks of actual teaching/school year, Ngo May Junior High School assigned Mr. Xuan to teach 20 periods/week, which is not in accordance with regulations.
The assignment of 20 teaching periods/week for Mr. Xuan was also confirmed by Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha - Principal of Ngo May Secondary School - in Decision No. 12/QD-THCSNM on resolving Mr. Xuan's complaint.
Mr. Xuan expressed his dissatisfaction because over the past many school years, he has fully implemented educational activities such as: meetings, group activities, professional groups, student management participating in propaganda sessions, sports competitions, participating in epidemic prevention and control... but the school has not converted them into standard teaching hours, leading to teachers teaching more but not enough hours. Meanwhile, from the beginning of each school year, the school has had a specific plan for assigning educational programs.
Mr. Xuan also reported that the inclusion of Binh Dinh traditional martial arts (VCT) into the official curriculum of the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years was against regulations, arbitrarily changing the curriculum set by the Ministry of Education and Training, leading to the situation where teachers were cut off from teaching VCT extracurricular activities. The school also required the group of physical education teachers to teach VCT at the beginning of each class, mid-class physical education... according to the training program but did not arrange for them to sign the lesson book.
According to Directive 03/CT-UBND dated January 8, 2016 of the Chairman of Binh Dinh Provincial People's Committee on implementing the program of bringing Binh Dinh VCT into schools in the 2015-2016 school year and the 2016-2020 period in the province; Official Dispatch 1227/SGDDT-GDTrH of the Department of Education and Training of Binh Dinh Province on promulgating the distribution of bringing Binh Dinh VCT into schools, the VCT subject must be taught in the extracurricular program of 6 periods/class/year; the budget for training teachers to teach VCT subject is from the allocated budget estimate.
“According to the program, I am responsible for teaching VCT for 9 classes, each class has 6 periods/year. So in the 3 school years from 2015 to 2018, I taught a total of 162 periods. In the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years, the school included VCT in the elective sports teaching plan (main curriculum), I had to teach 12 VCT periods/class/year, so in these 2 school years I taught a total of 216 VCT periods for 9 classes. However, up to now, the allowance for teaching VCT has not been paid to me,” said Mr. Xuan.
The school assigned teachers to teach, but they still did not receive their benefits?
To clarify the above reflection, at the end of September 2024 and the beginning of October 2024, Lao Dong Newspaper had working sessions with Quy Nhon City People's Committee, Quy Nhon City Inspectorate and Quy Nhon City Department of Education and Training; Ngo May Secondary School.
At the meeting, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Ha - Principal of Ngo May Secondary School - affirmed that the school has followed the regulations in calculating the standard teaching hours and converting the educational activities into standard teaching hours to calculate overtime pay for Mr. Xuan's case.
The school's Board of Education assigned Mr. Xuan to perform in the past school years were tasks that teachers had to do, and were not converted into standard teaching hours. The assignment of 20 hours/week was because Mr. Xuan was assigned to teach 10 classes, each class 2 hours/week, so he could not be assigned to teach according to the regulation of 19 hours/week.
Regarding the reflection that Binh Dinh VCT was included in the official curriculum, leading to the reduction of teacher benefits, Ms. Ha refused to answer. Ms. Ha explained that at the time of introducing VCT into schools, she did not participate nor direct teachers to implement it, so she did not fully understand the situation.
Ms. To Thi Thu Huong - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Quy Nhon City - said that according to regulations, secondary school teachers will teach 37 weeks/school year, 19 periods per week. The principal is the one who assigns teaching to teachers. Regarding Mr. Xuan's reflection, the department will check, if the teacher exceeds the standard teaching period, he/she will be charged overtime.
“Regarding the implementation of the program to bring Binh Dinh VCT into schools according to Directive 03/CT-UBND, the Department has deployed all relevant documents according to the instructions of the Department of Education and Training to schools. The Department does not direct the introduction of VCT into the official curriculum, therefore, to determine whether or not the school arbitrarily changes the curriculum, we must work with the school,” said Ms. Huong.
According to Mr. Nguyen Phuong Nam - Vice Chairman of Quy Nhon City People's Committee, for the educational activities during the year, according to regulations, teachers must develop a specific plan (what to do, how many periods). If this plan is approved by the school, the number of periods will be added to the actual teaching periods.
Payment of overtime allowances to teachers must be based on the teaching plan and the lesson plan to verify whether the teacher is teaching according to the plan or not. In case the school has a plan to assign educational activities, but the teacher does not make a plan for 2 weeks of educational activities, the overtime allowance will not be paid, even if the teacher teaches educational activities.
Regarding the reflection on including Binh Dinh VCT in the official curriculum, arbitrarily changing the curriculum prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training, leading to the situation where teachers were cut off from teaching extracurricular VCT subjects, Mr. Nam said that he would work with the principal to clarify, then there would be a specific handling direction...
