Ms. Phan Nga (Vinh Long) is an English teacher. According to the 2018 general education program, English is an elective subject for 1st and 2nd grade students, teachers assigned by the school to teach English in these blocks all exceed the norm of 23 periods/week (one teacher teaches 28 periods/week, of which 5 periods are extra time for teaching English in grade 1).
Ms. Nga asked, is that number of periods included in the total number of actual teaching periods of teachers? Currently, most elementary schools exclude the surplus teaching periods of teachers in grades 1 and 2 because they believe that English periods are enhanced periods, so teachers are not paid for extra classes.
Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Education and Training said that according to the provisions of Clause 2, Article 4 of Circular No. 21/2025/TT-BGDĐT dated September 23, 2025 of the Minister of Education and Training stipulating the regime of paying overtime teaching salaries for teachers in public educational institutions, the total number of overtime teaching periods in a school year of teachers is determined by the total number of teaching periods actually calculated in the school year minus the teaching period norm in the school year.
In which, the total number of actual teaching periods/school year includes: The number of actual teaching periods/school year; the number of converted teaching periods/school year according to regulations (if any); the number of additional teaching periods/school year according to regulations (if any); the number of reduced teaching periods/school year according to regulations (if any); the number of teaching periods included in the number of full teaching periods/school year according to regulations (if any).
According to the provisions of Clause 5, Article 3 of Circular No. 21/2025/TT-BGDĐT, tasks that have received remuneration or allowances are not allowed to convert the task performance time to a teaching period or reduce the teaching period norm to calculate overtime teaching salary unless otherwise provided by law.
Therefore, for teaching periods that have not been paid remuneration or allowances, it is calculated into the total number of actual teaching periods in the school year to serve as a basis for paying overtime teaching salaries according to regulations.
