Circular 29 of the Ministry of Education and Training takes effect from tomorrow (February 14), prohibiting teachers from collecting extra tuition from their regular students and from teaching extra classes at the primary level.
Teachers may also not be allowed to teach extra classes in schools because the Ministry only allows public schools to teach free extra classes to three groups: students who have not yet achieved their goals, students who are gifted, and students in grades 9 and 12 who voluntarily register.
To be able to teach extra classes outside of school without violating the regulations under Circular 29, many teachers are struggling.
Ms. Tran Thi Binh, a teacher at a secondary school in Cau Giay (Hanoi), said that after Tet, she and her colleagues at the school temporarily stopped tutoring students who had been studying with her since the summer.
"We had to stop to avoid violating regulations. Besides, we wanted to "hear" how our colleagues did it and what instructions the school gave," said Ms. Binh.
Ms. Binh said that she has asked many tutoring centers and is asking them to help her with business registration procedures, but she still does not have any feasible solution.
"I searched online and heard that I needed to register as a sole proprietorship, but it was confusing. My colleagues also struggled to register to teach before Circular 29 took effect," Ms. Binh added.
Like Ms. Binh, Mr. Le Hoai Nam, a public secondary school teacher in the suburbs of Hanoi, said that the two options teachers can think of are registering as a sole proprietorship or signing a contract with a center.
However, the district does not have any center, so the direction of business registration is of more interest to the teacher and some teachers in the school, but most of them are confused and do not know where to start.
Regarding registering a tutoring business, Mr. Nam said that the biggest difficulty encountered is related to regulations on who has the right to establish, operate and manage a business.
“During my research, I learned that public school teachers cannot register as business owners or operate centers. The plan I am considering is to ask a relative to register as a home teacher, ensuring the quality of classrooms, lighting, fire prevention and fighting..." - Mr. Nam said.
Can teachers in schools register their business? If so, where? What are the documents, conditions, and taxes? Do they need to apply for an additional educational license?... are questions that are shared a lot on teacher forums.
Speaking with Lao Dong, the leader of a department under the Hanoi Department of Education and Training said that registering for tutoring business is not under the management of the Department, but belongs to other agencies.
"The Department of Education and Training is only responsible for disseminating Circular 29 to schools and requiring strict implementation of the contents of the Circular," said a department leader of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training.
In reality, not all teachers who teach outside of school stop teaching before completing the required procedures, but many teachers switch to online teaching.
"This is just a temporary solution, but we don't know how to do it better when students are about to take important exams," said a high school teacher in Hanoi.
