Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates the working regime for general education teachers, which clarifies the teaching norms of principals, vice-principals and teachers at all levels of education.
This is an important basis for educational institutions to determine the correct implementation of regulations, as a basis for paying salaries and related allowances.
According to the Circular, principals, vice-principals and teaching teachers must ensure the average weekly number of periods or the number of periods for the whole school year, in accordance with their titles, grades and general education programs.
Principals and vice-principals still have to directly teach
Article 8 of Circular 05/2025/TT-BGDDT clearly stipulates: In addition to leadership and management tasks, principals and vice-principals of general schools and university preparatory schools must directly teach a number of lessons in the education program.
Participating in teaching aims to help management officials grasp the content and objectives of the general education program, understand the learning reality of students, thereby improving the effectiveness of school direction and management.
How to determine lesson norms in the school year
The teaching time limit for 1 school year is determined according to the formula:
Teaching hours per year = Average weekly teaching hours × Number of teaching weeks
In which, the number of teaching weeks is the number of weeks of implementing educational content in the general education program, excluding reserve weeks.
According to regulations, the actual teaching time of general education teachers is 35 weeks/school year, for teaching and educational activities; in addition, there are 2 spare weeks to complete the program when necessary.
Circular 05 stipulates the average teaching time limit for 1 week as follows:
2 periods/week
Deputy Principal: 4 hours/week
Primary school teachers: 23 hours/week
Secondary school teachers: 19 periods/week
High school teachers: 17 periods/week
Tuition norms for the whole school year
From the weekly norm and the number of actual teaching weeks, the teaching time norm in 1 school year is specifically determined:
70 hours/year
Vice Principal: 140 hours/year
Primary school teachers: 805 hours/year
Secondary school teachers: 665 periods/year
High school teachers: 595 hours/year
These norms are an important legal basis for the school to assign expertise, evaluate the implementation of the working regime of teachers and management staff, and at the same time serve as a basis for paying salaries, allowances and related regimes according to current regulations.
Principals are not allowed to use management reasons to not perform teaching tasks according to norms, except for cases permitted by competent authorities according to separate regulations.
Principals need to proactively arrange appropriate timetables, avoid concentrating formal lessons, and ensure that teaching is substantive and in accordance with the spirit of the Circular.
