What did the Home Secretary say about teacher pay reform?

The issue of teacher shortage but still cutting staff, low teacher salaries while Resolution 29 of the Party Central Committee since 2013 clearly stated that "teachers' salaries are given the highest priority in the administrative career salary scale system" is the focus of the question posed by some delegates to Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra in the question-and-answer session this morning, November 7.

Consistent sorting

Delegate Tran Kim Yen, Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, affirmed that streamlining the staff and streamlining the apparatus to improve effectiveness and efficiency of operations is very necessary. However, according to Delegate Yen, streamlining with a mechanical leveling nature is greatly affecting the education sector when localities share that they are lacking many teachers but recruitment is extremely difficult. In addition, the number of teachers quitting their jobs continues to increase due to many reasons, including too much pressure and insufficient income. The delegate asked the Minister of Home Affairs to provide solutions to solve the above problem?

Delegate Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga, National Assembly Delegation of Quang Binh Province also raised questions about policies for teachers. According to delegate Nga, monitoring by the Committee on Culture and Education showed that teachers' salaries, especially preschool teachers, are still very low but the work pressure is very high. At the dialogue between the Minister of Education and Training and nearly one million teachers, there were also 6,000 questions sent to the minister related to this issue.

Citing Resolution 29 of the Party on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training, which requires that teachers' salaries be given the highest priority in the administrative and career salary scale system, delegate Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga asked the Minister of Home Affairs to let her know whether this policy of the Party will be specified in the salary reform in 2024 or not? Policy solutions for teachers?

Responding to the question of delegate Nguyen Thi Tuyet Nga about salary reform for teachers, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that in general, the total income of teachers currently includes salary and salary according to professional titles, salary allowances, has improved compared to other professions, but due to its specific nature, it is still low.

Therefore, the minister said that in the coming time, when implementing salary policies, the Ministry of Home Affairs will base on Resolution 27, especially thoroughly grasp the spirit of Resolution 29 of the Party Central Committee, which is that teachers' salaries are given the highest priority in the salary scale of administrative and career high-ranking officials.

“This is consistent. The Ministry of Home Affairs will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to review regulations on salaries and allowances, especially preferential allowances for teachers, to submit to competent authorities for consideration and decision,” said Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra.

Socialization to reduce the number of employees receiving state salaries

Answering the question of delegate Tran Kim Yen, Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra said that in the recent period, in line with the Party's policy on restructuring the apparatus and streamlining the payroll, the entire political system has made great efforts and achieved initial successes in restructuring the apparatus and streamlining the payroll. Regarding the streamlining of the payroll for civil servants in the 2017-2021 period alone, the whole country has reduced 10.01%; for civil servants, the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the state budget has been reduced by 11.67%. The education sector has reduced by 6.4%, while the entire health sector has reduced by 32% due to promoting autonomy and converting that payroll to receive autonomous salaries.

Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra also acknowledged that in the recent past, many localities have reduced the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the state budget, leading to a shortage of people working in public service units, especially in the education sector. The Minister of Home Affairs said that, in particular, the education sector has its own characteristics, so the ongoing shortage of regular teachers is a practical problem.

Responding to the question about the solution to this problem, the Minister of Home Affairs emphasized the need for consensus in the implementation of drastic measures to reduce the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the state budget while still ensuring the number of people working for public service units, that is, promoting autonomy, and how to socialize and reduce the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the state budget.

Regarding the education sector, the Minister of Home Affairs believes that it is necessary to focus on reviewing and perfecting a number of institutional systems. The Minister of Home Affairs believes that the upcoming promulgation of the Law on Teachers is a condition for finding solutions to ensure the most basic issues in ensuring the life, quantity and quality of the activities of educational institutions.

“In the immediate future, the Ministry of Education and Training needs to urgently amend Circular 16 and Circular 11 on teacher and student standards in the classroom and submit to the Government amendments to Decree 81 to ensure the implementation of fee collection for all educational institutions, from kindergarten to university, urgently review to have guidelines for reviewing and rearranging the scale of schools and classes appropriately to reduce the number of focal points,” said Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra.

The Minister of Home Affairs also asked the Ministry of Finance to review the mechanism to promote autonomy in preschool education, higher education and vocational education. “This is a condition for us to reduce the number of civil servants receiving salaries from the State budget. I hope that localities will continue to review and arrange the scale of schools, especially inter-level and inter-commune schools where the number of students is not large, especially in rural areas, to reduce the number of focal points,” said the Minister of Home Affairs.

Debate on the content of the response of the Minister of Home Affairs regarding autonomy in public service units, delegate Nguyen Thi Thu Dung, National Assembly Delegation of Thai Binh province, said that implementing autonomy helps public service units to be more autonomous in performing their tasks, improving the quality of public service provision and increasing the income of civil servants in these units. However, the legal corridor is not complete, leading to difficulties for public service units that are currently autonomous, including service units in the education sector.

The delegate gave an example of the regulation to increase salaries from July 1, 2023, but for the past 3 years, tuition fees have not been increased, causing difficulties for autonomous units, which is also the cause of job abandonment in public service units.

Therefore, according to delegate Dung, reducing the number of salaried civil servants in public service units by promoting autonomy while the legal framework is not yet complete is not appropriate, so there needs to be a solution to resolve this situation.