The Prime Minister has just issued Directive No. 31/CT-TTg dated August 5, 2026 on implementing key tasks for the 2026 - 2027 school year.
On the basis of promoting the achieved results, in order to create clear and substantial changes in the new school year 2026 - 2027 in the spirit of Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW and the direction of the General Secretary and President on the field of education and training, the Prime Minister requests the Minister of Education and Training; Ministers, Heads of relevant agencies; Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and cities to strongly innovate thinking and methods of education management, strongly shift from the thinking of "education management" to "education development management"; focus on thoroughly overcoming limitations, inadequacies, difficulties, and obstacles; continue to synchronously, drastically, and effectively implement breakthrough tasks and solutions for education and training development.
Review and cut unnecessary exams, reduce exam pressure for students
Regarding specific tasks, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries, agencies, and localities to continue to review and synchronously improve institutions, policies, and laws on education and training in the spirit of Resolution No. 71-NQ/TW.
The Ministry of Education and Training is assigned to guide localities to continue to arrange the network of preschool and general education institutions in the direction of forming large-scale educational institutions associated with restructuring schools, organizational structure and personnel; guide management methods after arrangement and improve regulations on decentralization of education management.
For the new school year, the Prime Minister's Directive sets out the requirement to effectively implement a unified set of textbooks nationwide, ensuring full supply before August 15, 2026; promote 2-session/day teaching, STEM/STEAM education, digital skills, foreign languages, physical education, arts and career guidance. At the same time, the Ministry of Education and Training is assigned to direct and guide localities to review and cut unnecessary exams and competitions; reduce pressure on students, teachers and parents.
Review, arrange and recruit enough teachers right from the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year
Regarding the teaching staff, the Prime Minister assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Home Affairs to guide localities to restructure the staff in the direction of increasing direct teaching staff; complete the review and rearrangement of the teaching staff, and recruit enough teachers according to regulations right from the beginning of the 2026 - 2027 school year.
Research and propose policies to attract teachers, especially teachers of special subjects and working in difficult areas; amend regulations on norms and working regimes for teachers in accordance with the requirements of digital transformation and artificial intelligence application;
Promptly summarize and report on the current situation of the contingent of state management civil servants in education and training at the commune level and propose solutions; review and arrange reasonable personnel, increase the proportion of state management civil servants in education and training with professional qualifications, ensure that communes have people with sufficient capacity to advise and manage the field of education and training, and end the situation of "white communes" without people in charge of education in 2026.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is also assigned to build a teacher payroll management mechanism in a flexible and practical direction, associated with the scale of students, classes, and regional characteristics; arrange the network of educational institutions according to population size, urban planning, human resource needs of localities, regions and the whole country; decentralize and assign total payroll to localities to be autonomous in recruiting and using based on actual student/class norms.
The Prime Minister also requested localities to prioritize preparing sufficient teachers, schools, facilities, and teaching equipment for the new school year; implement teacher mobilization to overcome the situation of local surplus and shortage; recruit and effectively use assigned staff.
In addition, localities must innovate the work of inspection, evaluation and enrollment at the beginning level; strengthen the prevention and combat of cheating in exams; minimize intermediate reports and extra-regulation procedures so that teachers have more teaching time.
The Directive also requires publicizing collections, publicizing phone numbers to receive feedback on overcharging, tutoring, and extra classes contrary to regulations; strictly handling heads of educational institutions if violations occur.
In addition, localities need to strengthen school psychological counseling, prevent and combat school violence, e-cigarettes, school drugs; promote digital transformation in governance and teaching; build a unified and interconnected education database; prioritize resources for building inter-level boarding schools in land border communes and ensure completion on schedule according to the Government's requirements.
