School staff worried about salaries and benefits
Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh (character name changed on request), a laboratory equipment staff at a Hanoi City Secondary School, said that after nearly 30 years of work, her current income is only about 8.12 million VND/month, including hazardous allowance. "I work directly in the department, practice room, chemical - biological laboratory. Just a mistake in preparing equipment for teachers can lead to a workplace accident" - Ms. Thanh shared.
Also having more than 30 years of working in the education sector, Ms. Tran Thi Mai - an accountant at a school in Ninh Binh - said that her actual monthly salary is currently only more than 9.1 million VND, including an allowance of 0.1 equivalent to 234,000 VND.
This income level, according to Ms. Mai, is not commensurate with the nature and volume of work she has to perform because accounting is a high-pressure job and contains many legal risks.
Working in management, teacher Do Dinh Tuan - Principal of a secondary school in Bac Ninh province - acknowledged that in a school, if teachers are the ones who directly teach and impart knowledge, then the team of administrative staff is the team that helps the school operate smoothly.
The work of the school staff is specific: There is no longer summer vacation like teachers, the volume of records is increasingly pressured according to the requirements of digital transformation and education innovation, but current income is at a low level compared to the general level of society and compared to colleagues teaching classes.
Currently, the income gap between teachers and administrative staff in the same unit is creating certain thoughts and worries. While teachers have teaching allowances, school staff do not have a specific allowance commensurate. This leads to the risk that good and experienced staff will likely have to resign or transfer to the private sector to ensure their lives or have a mentality of "working half-heartedly" due to the pressure to find more jobs to cover living expenses" - Mr. Tuan said.
Proposal to apply professional preferential allowances to employees at a minimum level of 30%
After decades of not receiving allowances, recently, school staff across the country received good news when for the first time in Resolution 71 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in education and training development (Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW) was stipulated and clearly stated the viewpoint on paying attention to policies and the lives of school staff.
In the task and solution section, the Resolution states the requirement to have specific and superior preferential policies for teachers; increasing professional preferential allowances for preschool and general education institutions to at least 70% for teachers, at least 30% for staff, 100% for teachers in particularly difficult areas, border areas, islands, and ethnic minority areas.
However, in the draft Decree stipulating the preferential allowance regime for officials and employees working in public educational institutions, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to supplement a 20% preferential allowance for school staff, costing 158 billion VND/month.
Ms. Vu Thi Ngoc - accountant of a primary school in Ninh Binh - said that the school staff are waiting every day to receive professional preferential allowances, after decades of standing outside of preferential policies.
However, Ms. Ngoc believes that the 20% level still does not accurately reflect the pressure and nature of their work. Therefore, she proposes that the Ministry of Education and Training consider and apply professional preferential allowances to employees at a minimum level of 30%.
For accounting staff in particular, I propose to adjust the salary scale and special allowances; transfer the regime from responsibility allowance (0.1 - 0.2 base salary level) to responsibility allowance from 50% - 70% of the current salary level, commensurate with responsibility, workload and level of legal risk" - Ms. Ngoc said.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Tuan also proposed a minimum allowance of 30% for school staff from January 1. 2026. "This is not only an economic support figure, but also a fair recognition of their contributions to the teaching environment" - Mr. Tuan said.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Dr. Vu Minh Duc - Director of the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators, Ministry of Education and Training - said that the policy of preferential treatment for school staff is something that has worried him as well as the education sector for a long time.
Mr. Duc said that the Ministry of Education and Training once submitted a plan for a 30% vocational preferential allowance for school staff. However, the Government requires a roadmap for implementation because current budget resources do not allow expanding the benefit level to 30% for new target groups, avoiding budget spending pressure and ensuring long-term implementation capacity.
Therefore, in the immediate future, the Ministry of Education and Training proposes a 20% professional preferential allowance for school staff, and will develop a roadmap to implement the 30% level in the near future, ensuring the rights of teachers" - Mr. Duc informed.
