The Ministry of Education and Training is seeking opinions on the draft Circular regulating the working regime for preschool teachers. If approved and effective, the new Circular will replace Circular No. 48/2011/TT-BGDDT (Circular No. 48) currently in force.
Immediately after the Ministry of Education and Training published the draft Circular, the Departments of Education and Training had many comments on the content of the draft Circular.
Accordingly, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training proposed that Article 3 of the draft Circular stipulate: "In case of having to arrange part-time teachers, the principal prioritizes assigning part-time work for teachers who do not have enough average teaching hours in 1 week and ensure that teachers meet the requirements for performing assigned tasks". With this regulation, the total working time in the school year of preschool teachers should be supplemented by 42 weeks, in order to ensure consistency and avoid arising different understandings in the implementation process.
Hai Phong Department of Education and Training also proposed to supplement regulations on the principle of flexibly applying 40 hours/week for preschool teachers, ensuring suitability with the characteristics of nurturing - caring - educating children.
With this content, the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators said that the drafting unit has received comments and clarified that the working time of teachers is 40 hours/week and includes teaching time, preparation time for class time, time to pick up and drop off children, and time to perform other professional tasks according to professional activities requirements (in Clause 1, Article 3).
Many opinions sent to the Nghe An Department of Education and Training contributing opinions to the draft Circular also suggested that flexible regulations should be added for special cases, allowing principals to consider assigning teachers to concurrently perform more than 2 tasks in necessary cases, based on the consensus of the school collective and reporting to competent management agencies.
Agreeing with this view, many comments from the Ha Tinh Department of Education and Training also said that in reality, in small-scale kindergartens, there is a shortage of personnel, teachers often have to concurrently perform more than 2 tasks. Therefore, there should be flexible regulations for schools lacking staff, and at the same time, there should be a mechanism for conversion or appropriate support.
However, the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators believes that the regulation of concurrently performing no more than 2 tasks is to ensure that preschool teachers do not have to perform too many other tasks, affecting the nurturing, care, and education of children. At the same time, there are currently directives on arranging educational institutions to ensure limiting scattered schools with few classes.
Ca Mau Department of Education and Training believes that in reality, in some communes due to the characteristics of riverine areas and travel conditions, the time to pick up and drop off children is often longer than expected. The regulation of 5 hours and 30 minutes of direct teaching (excluding picking up/ dropping off children) needs to be accompanied by specific guidance on the allocation of the remaining 2 hours and 30 minutes (1 day working 8 hours) for preparation activities, records and books to avoid the situation where teachers have to work overtime outside of office hours but are not allowed to count hours.
Accepting feedback, the Department of Teachers and Educational Administrators has adjusted and clarified that in addition to 5 hours and 30 minutes of teaching, teachers must also carry out preparation tasks for class teaching hours, picking up and dropping off children, and other professional tasks according to professional activity requirements to ensure a working week of 40 hours. However, the regulation of 1 working day of 8 hours is difficult for the professional activities of preschool teachers.
