The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced a draft Decree regulating the regime of position allowances for educational institution management officials to collect comments.
One of the notable changes in the draft is the shift from the method of determining allowances associated with school grades and classifying institutions to determining according to job positions and management positions corresponding to the type and nature of operation of educational institutions.
According to current regulations in Circular 33/2005/TT-BGDĐT, many levels of allowances for principals and vice principals are determined according to grade I, II, III schools. For example, principals of high schools (THPT) are entitled to a coefficient from 0.45 to 0.70 depending on the school grade, vice principals from 0.35 to 0.55; for lower secondary schools (THCS), the principal coefficient is from 0.35 to 0.55 and vice principals from 0.25 to 0.45.
In the context of implementing the arrangement and merger of public preschool, general education, vocational education, and continuing education institutions, the draft stipulates a unified allowance level for the corresponding positions of the institutions.
This adjustment, according to the Ministry, aims to maintain and contribute to creating motivation, attracting and retaining the team of educational institution management officials, improving school governance efficiency, and meeting the requirements of fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training in the new period.
Specifically, the Ministry of Education and Training proposes the allowance coefficient for general schools as follows:
| Education level/type of school | Position/title | Allowance coefficient |
|---|---|---|
| High school, vocational high school | Principal | 0. 70 |
| Vice Principal | 0. 55 | |
| Professional and equivalent groups of high schools | Head | 0. 25 |
| Deputy | 0. 15 | |
| Faculty, functional department, branch, other units without legal status serving vocational education activities and equivalent units under vocational high schools | Head | 0. 30 |
| Deputy | 0. 20 | |
| Secondary School | Principal | 0. 55 |
| Vice Principal | 0. 45 | |
| Professional groups and equivalent units under secondary schools | Head | 0. 20 |
| Deputy | 0. 15 | |
| Elementary school | Principal | 0. 50 |
| Vice Principal | 0. 40 | |
| Kindergarten | Principal | 0. 50 |
| Vice Principal | 0. 35 | |
| Professional groups and equivalent units under primary schools and kindergartens | Head | 0. 20 |
| Deputy | 0. 15 |
Assessing the impact, the Ministry of Education and Training said that because the draft does not adjust to increase the rank allowance coefficient, it basically does not incur state budget expenditures due to changes in allowance policies. Implementation costs continue to be ensured according to the current financial mechanism from the state budget according to decentralization and legal financial resources of public non-business units.
Maintaining the current allowance level also limits the impact on budget balance and does not create pressure to supplement financial resources. In the context of arranging and merging the system of educational institutions, some new educational institution models formed according to the provisions of the 2025 Vocational Education Law such as vocational secondary schools are replaced by other educational institution models (intermediate schools, vocational education centers - continuing education conversion to vocational secondary schools).
Therefore, it does not generate state budget to issue new position allowances for management officials of newly established grassroots models.
The Ministry calculated that the budget expenditure for position allowances for management officials of educational institutions each month before implementing the arrangement and merger of preschool, general education, continuing education, and vocational education institutions is about 215.7 billion VND (according to the basic salary coefficient from July 1, 2026 is 2,530,000 VND).
After the arrangement and merger of preschool, general education, continuing education, and vocational education institutions, it is approximately VND 193.8 billion (as of the end of August 2026).
