Draft 5 of the Law on Teachers consists of 9 Chapters and 45 Articles, 26 Articles less than draft 5 submitted to the National Assembly on September 6, 2024.
The draft closely follows the direction of the National Assembly Standing Committee, which is a concise law, only regulating contents under the authority of the National Assembly.
Compared with previously published drafts, the 5th draft of the Law on Teachers has many new points related to salaries and allowance policies for teachers.
In particular, regarding salary and allowance policies, Article 25 of the draft Law on Teachers (5th edition) stipulates as follows:
- Teachers in public educational institutions receive a basic salary according to the teacher salary scale, which is ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system. At the same time, they receive preferential allowances and other allowances depending on the nature of the job and the region.
- Preschool teachers; young teachers; teachers working in particularly difficult areas such as ethnic minority areas, mountainous areas, coastal areas and islands; teachers at specialized schools and other specialized schools; teachers implementing inclusive education; teachers who are ethnic minorities and teachers in some specific professions are given priority in salary and allowance regimes higher than other teachers.
- Salaries and salary-based policies of teachers at non-public educational institutions and public educational institutions with autonomy in regular expenditures, and public educational institutions with autonomy in regular expenditures and investment expenditures are decided by the educational institution and must not be less than the salaries and salary-based policies of teachers with the same training level, seniority, and title as prescribed in Clause 1 of this Article.
- Teachers working in sectors and fields with special policies are entitled to special policies according to regulations and are only entitled to the highest level if that policy coincides with the policy for teachers.
- The Government regulates salary scales, tables and contents related to salaries and allowances for teachers.
Thus, compared to the previously published drafts, the Ministry of Education and Training has added a regulation that teachers who are recruited and have their salaries increased by one level in the administrative career salary scale system. This is to encourage and motivate young teachers.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training's assessment, the additional cost to pay teachers' salaries will be about 1,068 billion VND/month, meaning the budget must add nearly 13,000 billion VND annually.
In the case where teachers are recruited and their salaries are increased by 1 salary level in the administrative and career salary scale system, the additional cost to pay salaries is about 22 billion VND/month, which means that the budget must add 264 billion VND annually.
In addition, according to the 5th Draft Law on Teachers, teachers will continue to receive seniority allowances until the new salary policy is implemented.
Previously, in the third draft of the Teachers Law, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed a separate provision on maintaining seniority allowances for teachers. However, according to the fifth draft, seniority allowances for teachers will be implemented until the new salary policy is officially implemented.
In case of transferring teachers from public educational institutions to educational management agencies, seniority allowances and preferential allowances for teachers will be reserved for a maximum period of 36 months. After the reservation period, the policies and regimes of the new job position will be implemented.
