The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has completed and sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal the draft Decree stipulating the salary policy and allowance regime for teachers.
It is expected that all teachers will receive a special salary coefficient.
In this draft, the Ministry of Education and Training proposes 4 specific coefficient levels to be classified according to each teacher group.
It is expected that the level will be 1.25 for preschool teachers and 1.15 for other teachers. For teachers teaching at schools and classes for people with disabilities, integrated education development support centers; teachers teaching at boarding general schools in land border areas; teachers teaching at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and provincial and city political schools will receive an additional 0.05 compared to the prescribed level.
In addition, the Ministry also proposed a new salary calculation formula for teachers based on the addition of a "special salary coefficient". Specifically, the salary calculated from 2026 is calculated as follows:
Salary level = Base salary level x Current salary coefficient x Specific salary coefficient.
Coefficients 1.2 and 1.3 apply to special cases such as teachers teaching people with disabilities, teachers at boarding schools in border areas, teachers at the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics and provincial political schools.
This specific salary coefficient is used to calculate social insurance contributions and benefits but not to calculate other allowances.
In the report, the Ministry of Education and Training clearly stated that teachers' salaries are not actually ranked highest in the administrative and public service salary scale system as the Party's policy has determined for nearly 30 years. Even the majority of teachers are ranked at a lower salary scale than civil servants in many other professions.
According to the report analyzing the salary structure of the Ministry of Education and Training, currently only about 12% of the total number of teachers are classified into high-wage groups (from A1 to A3.1). Meanwhile, this figure in other industries and fields is almost 100%.
Notably, the difference is even more pronounced at the highest salary levels. While other sectors have a maximum of 10% of civil servants enjoying salary scale A3.1 (high-level specialists or equivalent), the education sector only has about 1.17% of grade I teachers reaching this threshold.
Statistics from the Ministry show that out of nearly 1.2 million teachers, only less than 14,000 lecturers and professional teachers are ranked A3 salary.
Another inadequacy pointed out by the Ministry of Education and Training is that up to 88% of teachers today can only reach the maximum salary coefficient of 6.78 (the highest level of grade II). Meanwhile, civil servants in other sectors with the same university training level can easily access the salary coefficient of 8.0 (1.18 times higher).
In addition, 100% of preschool teachers are ranked at the lowest level in the administrative and non-business salary scale system.
Specifically, in the same rank, the salary coefficient of preschool teachers is always 1.11 to 1.88 times lower than other industries. The highest salary coefficient that a preschool teacher can achieve in a career is only 6.38, while this figure in other industries is 8.0.
Budget generated is about 1,799.7 billion VND/month
The Ministry of Education and Training believes that the regulation on the special salary coefficient helps to realize the policy "Teachers' salaries are ranked highest in the administrative and non-business salary scale system" in the context that the Government has not yet stipulated a new salary policy, and salary payments are still implemented according to the provisions of Decree No. 204/2004/ND-CP.
The budget generated is mainly for preschool and general education teachers due to accounting for a large number of teachers. At the same time, other educational institutions are currently autonomous at level 3 and level 2, so there is no state budget for salary payment or insignificant arising.
Based on the extraction of teachers' data on the industry database (extracted to each salary coefficient and current occupational preferential allowance level, especially the seniority allowance for teachers is estimated according to the salary scale, salary coefficient, salary grade that teachers are currently receiving), the budget arising to implement the specific salary coefficient regulation is about 1,799.7 billion VND/month. Along with that, the budget arising from compulsory insurance contributions (with a rate of 21.5%) is 388.4 billion VND/month.
