School staff want to receive a 30% allowance from January 2026
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has sent to the Ministry of Justice for appraisal the draft Decree stipulating preferential allowance regimes for civil servants and employees working in public educational institutions.
In the draft, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to add a 20% preferential allowance for school staff, costing 158 billion VND/month. This is the first time this group of subjects has enjoyed professional preferential allowances.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Huong - library staff at a secondary school in Ninh Binh - said that according to Resolution 71, the minimum allowance for school staff is regulated to be at least 30%.
However, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to apply a 20% rate from January 2026 to 2030. The 30% rate is expected to be applied from 2031. According to Ms. Huong, this allowance level for school staff is not satisfactory, even unfair.
Our desire is to enjoy a 30% allowance right from January 2026," Ms. Huong expressed and said that school staff across the country have suffered many disadvantages for nearly two decades.
For a long time, our school staff have not been given due attention, now the State shows concern, has clearly stated the minimum allowance level of 30%, so we really hope that policy will be fully applied from January 2026," she said.
As a school library employee for 15 years, her current actual salary is only about 6.8 million VND/month and she has no additional income, except for the library's hazardous allowance. She believes that this salary cannot support herself, let alone take care of her children or family when her parents are sick and her children are hospitalized.
Teachers with salaries twice or three times higher than us complain about difficulties, so we feel even more unfair with such salaries," Ms. Huong expressed.
According to her calculations, if the allowance is increased to 30%, her monthly income will increase by more than 2 million VND. This increase is only enough to partially compensate for the price recession, but it cannot fully meet living needs.
But more importantly, it is the State's recognition of the silent contributions of the school staff," Ms. Huong said.
With my current salary, if I receive a 30% allowance, it will only increase by more than 2 million VND
Ms. Trinh Thi Ngoc Chung - a school library employee in Thanh Hoa has been attached to the education sector for more than 20 years, but her current salary is only more than 8 million VND per month, so her life is facing many difficulties.
Every day, we have to travel a mountain distance of more than 10km, travel conditions are much more difficult than in the plains," she said.
Regarding the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Training to apply a 20% occupational preferential allowance level to school staff, Ms. Chung said that it is still not possible to thoroughly solve the income problem for this force.
For example, with my current salary, if I receive a 30% allowance, my income will only increase by more than 2 million VND, totaling more than 10 million VND per month - this level is still not really guaranteed for life" - Ms. Chung analyzed and expressed her desire that, right in the first phase, from 2026 to 2030, our school staff will receive a 30% allowance.
That is not only material support but also a correct and worthy recognition for our contributions," Ms. Chung expressed.
The second issue that Ms. Chung is concerned about is seniority in the profession. According to her, although she has worked for more than 20 years in the education sector, the current team of school staff is not specifically recorded for seniority in the profession.
We have worked for so many years, contributed for so many years but there is no seniority regime, no commensurate recognition," she shared.
Besides, Ms. Chung said that the work of school staff in reality does not only stop at the main task of the library, but also has to concurrently take on many other tasks such as in charge of adding school equipment or medical work,...
Meanwhile, teachers, if they are part-time or do other part-time jobs, will have part-time allowances or reduced periods and hours. As for school staff, there is currently no specific document regulating whether they are entitled to reduce working hours or have additional income when performing part-time tasks.
We hope that the State will pay more attention, issue clear and specific regulations so that when employees do extra jobs outside their main tasks, they will enjoy reasonable benefits" - she emphasized.
