The Ministry of Education and Training proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs adjust the position of school health workers.

The Ministry of Education and Training has just sent a document to the Ministry of Home Affairs to review, supplement and adjust the list of job positions. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to adjust the position of "school health" from the group of support and service categories to the group of specialized job positions used in common in educational institutions.

The document clearly stated that in order to implement Decree No. 106/2020/ND-CP dated September 10, 2020 of the Government, based on the consensus of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circulars guiding on job positions, job title structure, and quotas for the number of people working in public preschool and general education institutions (Circular No. 19/2023/TT-BGDDT and Circular No. 20/2023/TT-BGDDT).

In particular, the general professional and service support positions are implemented according to the provisions of Circular No. 12/2022/TT-BNV dated December 30, 2022 of the Ministry of Home Affairs. In Appendix V, Circular No. 12 of the Ministry of Home Affairs, school health is stipulated in the List of support and service positions and is implemented under the Labor Contract regime.

Circular No. 19 and Circular No. 20 of the Ministry of Education and Training have stipulated transitional provisions to ensure the rights of school health workers recruited before February 15, 2023. However, school health workers recruited after February 15, 2023 must work under a labor contract. This causes difficulties and psychological instability for this team in schools. After issuing the Circulars, the Ministry of Education and Training received many opinions from provinces and cities on this issue.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, school health care is an important and heavy task, requiring a high level of responsibility for the job, related to human life and health. School health workers also undertake many other related tasks such as collecting and creating student health insurance records, disease prevention, school disease prevention, child sexual abuse prevention, prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, e-cigarettes, drugs, HIV/AIDS prevention, mental health care, psychological counseling and support for students with abnormal psychological manifestations, early detection of signs of autism to coordinate with families and medical facilities for timely intervention, etc.

Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs adjust the position of school health from the support and service category to the group of specialized job positions used in educational institutions to ensure the regime, policies and quality of primary health care for children and students at schools.