Minister of Education and Training: Urgently increase salaries and preferential allowances for teachers

Responding to reporters, Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that over the past year, the country has recorded about 16,000 teachers quitting their jobs, and the education sector is facing many difficulties and challenges. Therefore, the urgent issue that needs to be prioritized is to increase salaries and allowances for teachers to prevent quitting.

- Recently, the rate of teachers quitting their jobs is said to be the highest in history. According to the Minister, what is the main cause and how is the Ministry of Education and Training solving this problem?

Currently, the average income of preschool and primary school teachers after 5 years of work is 4.5 to 4.7 million VND, including salary and 35% incentive allowance. After 5 years of teaching, teachers receive an additional 5% seniority allowance. As for new recruits, the income is only about 3 million VND in the first 2-3 years.

Preschool teachers in particularly difficult areas receive a 70% subsidy, plus local attraction allowances, or work in specialized schools (schools for children in need of special care). After 5 years of work, their salary can reach 6 million VND, but the number is not much.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son visits students in mountainous areas

Some teachers shared with me that after working for a dozen years, at the end of the month they receive a salary of 5-6 million VND, of which 3 million VND is withdrawn to pay for their two children's tuition. The little money left is only enough for teachers to go shopping for about half a month. In addition to class time, many teachers run around doing other jobs to earn money to take care of their families. Buying a house and raising children has become an obsession for many teachers, especially in big cities.

Preschool and primary school teachers have to arrive at school very early to pick up students, take care of their meals, sleep, and studies. A working day for these teachers is often very long, while the salary they receive is still not enough to cover their living expenses.

In just 10 months of 2022, more than 16,000 teachers nationwide quit their jobs, an average of one out of every 100 teachers leaving the profession. The large proportion of teachers quitting their jobs is in preschool and primary schools. The main reason is that salaries are too low, while the workload is too much because teachers have to teach, educate, and take care of students. Some provinces set targets but cannot recruit because there are no resources; or there are resources but many people choose to do other jobs with higher incomes.

This situation requires urgent salary increases and preferential allowances for teachers, especially in preschool and primary schools. I also hope that localities will provide more support to the group of teachers who are currently not receiving much attention, that is, teachers who teach in private preschools according to the nursery group model.

- Will the solution of increasing salaries and allowances prevent teachers from quitting and attract talented people to the education sector, Minister?

This is an urgent issue to improve the quality of life for teachers, in the spirit of "practice makes perfect".

The number of teachers who have recently quit their jobs is concentrated in cities and industrial zones such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Dong Nai - where the average living standard of the people is high. Teachers with low salaries, large differences in living standards, cannot live in peace in poverty. In these areas, if teachers quit their jobs, they can easily find other jobs because of the advantage of being trained and having a cultural level.

I hope that the Party and the State will prioritize considering increasing salaries and preferential allowances for teachers, so that teachers no longer have to calculate and stretch their limited salaries for dozens of monthly expenses; and can wholeheartedly and confidently teach knowledge to students.

Increased salaries and allowances for teachers are also a motivation to attract excellent students to enter the teaching profession, improving the quality of the team. At the same time, when the public sector increases salaries, it will be a lever, stimulating the private sector to pay more attention to the lives of teachers and invest in people. While waiting for the competent authority to consider, with our authority and responsibility, we continue to improve the working environment, strengthen school management, school regulations and enhance school culture, so that teachers have a favorable working environment, promoting their responsibilities as teachers.

The Ministry of Education and Training will review other policies such as work management, professional activities, personal development, and reduce non-professional administrative work for teachers.

Educational innovation is an inevitable thing to do according to the Resolution of the Central Committee, therefore, the computing industry provides maximum support so that teachers can adjust themselves, adapt to the requirements, teaching methods, approach the program, textbooks, testing, evaluation, and interaction with students. This is a big change so it needs a process, the education industry and schools must support and share so that teachers can improve and serve their work well. We also need to be shared, accompanied, and respected by society and parents.

- At the recent explanation session on October 28, the Minister mentioned that he would propose doubling the allowance for preschool teachers from 35% to 70%. Why only at the preschool level, sir?

Nationwide, there are more than 1.2 million teachers at all levels of preschool and general education. Of these, there are nearly 370,000 teachers at preschool level. According to statistics from localities, the most shortage of teachers and the highest number of resignations are at preschool level, with over 40% of teachers quitting their jobs at preschool level.

According to the 2019 Education Law, the standard training level of preschool teachers is college, preschool teachers of grade III receive salaries according to the professional salary scale of civil servants of type A0 with a salary coefficient from 2.10 to 4.89.

With a 35% allowance, preschool teachers' income is much lower than that of teachers at other levels with the same working time. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Training has proposed a number of options to regulate the allowance level for preschool teachers.

In particular, if possible, the preferential allowance for preschool teachers can be increased to the same level as the preferential allowance for grassroots health care. If not, it should be increased by at least 35% to 70%, equal to the old preferential allowance for grassroots health care.

This proposal aims to share some of the difficulties and hardships of preschool teachers and implement Resolution No. 41/2021/QH15 of the 15th National Assembly (urgently research and advise on the promulgation of specific policies, ensuring regimes and policies for managers, teachers, staff and workers in preschool education institutions).

Students give flowers to show gratitude to teachers on November 20

- Many opinions say that the position of teachers in schools is no longer what it used to be, some teachers violate professional ethics, parents lack respect for teachers... What do you think about this issue?

The education sector currently has more than 1.2 million teachers and education managers. Besides the many great and meaningful contributions of teachers to the education cause in particular and to the development of the country, there are also some bad things happening here and there. However, these are isolated, minority cases and cannot be used to generalize the situation or make one-sided assessments of the teaching profession.

The country is setting development goals to become an industrialized country with a good income, and the people's lives are constantly improving. That is a very big goal of the country and to achieve that goal, human development and human resource development are considered one of the three strategic breakthrough solutions. In that context, the education sector is facing great responsibilities, requirements, challenges and opportunities, because to successfully implement the strategic breakthrough in human development and human resource development, education and training play a key role.

From the general education system to the university system, all have set out tasks of innovation and quality improvement. Among the solutions that need to be deployed and implemented, the solution that plays a pivotal role and is of a breakthrough nature is to develop the teaching staff, rely on the teaching staff, promote the responsibility of the teaching staff, and consider the innovation of the teaching staff's methods and thinking as a particularly important task. Never before has the teaching staff been placed before such a glorious responsibility and mission as it is today, and with that, the challenges are greater than ever.

The success or failure of the educational innovation that the Party, Government, and National Assembly are implementing is related to the success or failure of the national innovation, and the decisive factor in determining the success or failure of the teaching staff is the decisive role.

Therefore, the concern for the teaching staff is not only a social policy, reflecting a cultural tradition, but also a development perspective and the most practical calculation for the development of the country. Along with that, the teaching profession needs respect, trust, sharing, support and is always placed in the right solemn position as it is.

- On the occasion of November 20, what message does the Minister want to send to teachers nationwide?

The education and training sector is facing great demands, tasks, and heavy responsibilities in the context of the whole society in the transition period. There are challenges and dilemmas for the teaching staff in the process of social transformation. In that context, more than ever, teachers need to firmly hold on to the important support of the profession, which is the mission of creating noble values ​​for people. It is necessary to take that as a support and as a spiritual encouragement.

On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Vietnamese Teachers' Day, I would like to send my best wishes to all teachers, hoping that they will have a happy and meaningful anniversary. I also want to convey to teachers that although our profession is full of challenges and hardships, we have support and faith in the good things we are doing, so we will overcome any difficulties.

Life is always fluctuating, always changing every day, always challenging, but we have one constant to rely on, that is we create people, create generations of students, honest, creative, responsible people. Those are the values ​​that help us overcome all challenges and find endless joy in our work.

- Thank you very much, Minister!

According to VTC News