Pressure and risks
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal the Draft Decree stipulating salary policies and allowances for teachers. In which, regulations on heavy, hazardous, and dangerous allowances for practical teachers are attracting great attention from the teaching staff, especially in the vocational education sector.
According to Article 9 of the Draft, practical teachers – including teachers who teach purely practical or both theory and practical teaching – in practice rooms and workshops of public vocational education institutions or at enterprises, production, business, and service establishments will be entitled to allowances if they work in a heavy, hazardous, and dangerous environment.
Reality shows that practical teachers regularly have to be in direct contact with chemicals, toxic gases, metal dust, work in loud noise, continuous vibration, high or too cold temperatures, and even have the risk of exposure to radiation, radiation, and electromagnetic fields. Some occupations also have potential risks of infectious diseases in the process of guiding students.
These conditions not only affect the long-term health of teachers but also create psychological pressure, requiring high concentration to ensure safety for learners. However, for many years, the preferential policies for this group of teachers have not been commensurate, and even in some places, all allowance regimes according to the nature of work have not been fully applied.
Risk-layered allowance level
In Clause 2, Article 9 of the Draft, the Ministry of Education and Training clearly states the heavy, hazardous, and dangerous factors, including:
Direct contact with toxic substances, toxic gases, toxic dust;
Practical teaching in environments prone to infection and infectious diseases as prescribed;
Practical teaching in high-pressure or oxygen-deficient environments, where it is too hot or too cold beyond permissible standards;
Practical teaching of majors and occupations that generate loud noise or in places with continuous vibrations with high frequencies exceeding occupational safety and occupational hygiene standards;
Practical teaching in an environment where radiation, radiation, or electromagnetic field exceeds permissible standards.
The draft Decree stipulates 4 levels of allowances, from 0.1 to 0.4 of the base salary level, corresponding to the number of heavy, hazardous, and dangerous factors that teachers have to face in the teaching process.
Notably, the allowance is calculated based on the number of practical teaching hours, instead of being rigidly applied according to the job position. The formula for calculating the allowance level is as follows:
This calculation method ensures fairness, encourages teachers to directly participate in practical teaching, instead of avoiding lessons that pose potential safety risks.
In which, the teaching hours or lesson norms of teachers in a month = the teaching hours or lesson norms of teachers in one year/12 months;
Heavy, hazardous, and dangerous allowances are paid on the same monthly salary period and are not used to calculate social insurance contributions and benefits.
The draft empowers the head of the vocational education institution to determine the specific allowance level. This is a point that needs to be guided in detail and closely monitored, in order to avoid the situation of applying formality or lack of unity between institutions.
Supplementing and clarifying heavy, hazardous, and dangerous allowances helps improve income for practical teachers, contributing to stabilizing the team, improving the quality of training, thereby meeting the requirements of human resource development.
