The Ministry of Education and Training is drafting the Law on Teachers, which includes many policies on salaries, benefits, and honors for teachers.
As planned, the draft Law on Teachers will be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration and first comments at the 8th session (October 2024) and considered and approved at the 9th session (May 2025).
One of the new points in the draft Law on Teachers (3rd time) is the regulation on the retirement age of teachers.
Article 49 stipulates the retirement regime for teachers as follows:
- The retirement age of teachers is implemented according to the provisions of the Labor Code; preschool teachers and teachers of schools for the disabled are allowed to retire 05 (five) years earlier than the regulations on retirement age.
- 06 (six) months before the teacher's retirement date, the agency, organization, or unit managing the teacher must notify in writing about the retirement date; 03 (three) months before the teacher's retirement date, the agency, organization, or unit managing the teacher must issue a retirement decision.
- Educational institutions can sign teaching contracts with pensioners if the unit has a need and the pensioner wishes.
Compared to previous drafts for comments, the third draft of the Law on Teachers has added cases where teachers are eligible for early retirement, including preschool teachers and teachers in schools for children with disabilities. Retirement time is when they reach 55 years old.
As for teachers at other levels, the retirement age will follow the provisions of the Labor Code (the retirement age of employees in normal working conditions will be adjusted according to the roadmap until reaching 62 years old for male employees in 2028 and 60 years old for female employees in 2035).
Explaining the reason why preschool teachers have a lower retirement age (55 years old) compared to other teachers, the Ministry of Education and Training said that this ensures compliance with the requirements of implementing the preschool education program and is consistent with the current working conditions of preschool teachers.
The Ministry of Education and Training also said that it has drafted a report on scientific research results proving that the working conditions of preschool teachers are among the "hard" job indicators.
Previously, many preschool teachers also said that the regulation on the retirement age of 60 years old for preschool teachers is not appropriate. Teachers proposed to keep the retirement age for preschool teachers at 55 years old.
