Primary school teacher salary is nearly 200,000 VND/hour?

The post reads as follows:

"Shocking: Teaching is not as low an income/hour as you think.

I work for a company with a salary of 7.5 million VND/month, working 12 hours a day, which means I only get 20,000 VND/hour.

Now I have some free time to sit down and calculate my mother's salary. My mother has been an elementary school teacher for over 20 years, with a salary of 12 million, teaching 18 sessions a month, each session 3.5 hours. A simple division gives an unexpected number, almost 10 times my income/hour. That's just counting the whole morning teaching session, in the afternoon when my mother tutors, she gets an additional 4-5 million/month. High salary, short working hours, and a noble profession, yet many people still criticize teaching as a cheap profession.

Immediately after posting, the above content received a storm of reactions from public opinion.

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Teachers get 200,000 VND/hour?

Nearly a year ago - early November 2022, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son reported to National Assembly delegates some information of interest, including the situation of teachers quitting and changing jobs.

In this report, Mr. Son stated a figure: “Currently, teachers working in the first 5 years have an average income from salary and allowances of about 6 million VND/month. Meanwhile, the essential costs for life (food, accommodation, childcare, health care, etc.) are quite high. This causes some teachers to switch to other jobs with higher incomes.”

However, many teachers shared with reporters that their income "is still far from the level reported by the minister, let alone 200,000 VND/hour".

A teacher said: "I have been teaching for 13 years this year, my salary is only over 6.2 million VND, so how much will my salary be in the first 5 years? I have a 2.34 university degree, in the first year of training my salary is 70%, next year it is 100%, every 3 years of teaching I increase by 1 level (+0.33) = 2.67 (back then my basic salary was not as good as it is now). The salary was low, the responsibility was high, and the pressure from parents was increasing day by day."

Teacher Thanh Thu commented: "My salary is now 12 million VND, but I was born in 1964 and am about to retire. To truly be a teacher living on salary, it must be... now - when the children are grown up, the need to eat, drink and have fun decreases because of health."

Photo: Thanh Hung

Although not in the industry, Mr. Tran Thanh Hiep said: "My wife has been teaching English at primary school for nearly 3 years, with a salary of about 3.5 million VND. At night and late at night, she still prepares lessons, grades papers, does not have enough time to eat, sleep, rest and take care of a child while the child goes to daycare during the day. Besides, meetings, competitions, extracurricular activities... my wife is exhausted. While we live in Ba Ria Vung Tau City, that salary is not enough to support ourselves...".

Do teachers only teach 3.5 hours a day?

Mr. Tran Lam Thao is a teacher who has been teaching for 33 years. Like teacher Thu, he said he will retire in a few years. He said: "It's only now that I can live on my salary because my children are grown up, starting to grow up, and the cost of food and drink is not too high."

"However, looking back at ourselves, we teachers have too much pressure from many sides. Teaching is one thing, but we also have to participate in all kinds of movements. The activities of the provincial library also bring students in for us to practice hard, sell children's newspapers for the Youth Union to raise funds, collect insurance money for insurance companies... Not to mention we also have to participate in the union of the agency block, this and that welcoming activities of the local committee. We really don't have enough strength to handle it.

Teaching and making records, we try our best, but isn't it too much to force teachers to do these trivial things? As a result, "powerless", teachers have to quit their jobs to find other jobs that are more mentally relaxing, even though they are physically more tiring."

Mr. Bui Van Hoang also said: "My wife has been in this profession for 12 years, with a salary of 1, but the working hours are too long, always leaving early and coming home late, having children but not being able to raise them, coming home to take care of all the work for the next day, the family cannot care. There are classes, initiatives, this competition and that competition, this association and that association.

In general, seeing my wife working so hard, I feel sorry for her. She has been asking to change jobs for a long time. My husband and I often argue. There were times when it was so tense that we thought we would have to leave each other because she didn't have time for the family. I had to do all the housework, so I was exhausted."

Sharing the same situation as Mr. Hoang, Mr. Tran Kien commented: "Teachers' salaries are low now, but there is a lot of work. My wife is an elementary school teacher with a university degree, her salary is only over 4 million VND and she has to work all day. At night, my wife has to make electronic lesson plans, electronic reports, text messages to interact with parents... On Saturdays and Sundays, she has to take students to exams, participate in extracurricular activities, and after work, she stays behind to practice performing arts... She doesn't have time to take care of her family and children.

I just want my wife to quit teaching and stay home to take care of the family. I don't think the effort and intelligence she puts into working is worth it. She loves her job so she hasn't quit yet."

Expected to increase preferential allowances for preschool teachers by 10%, primary school teachers by 5%

At the event "Minister of Education and Training meets teachers, managers, and employees in the education sector" held on August 15, in the group of contents reflecting on policies and regimes, there were many opinions wishing the Minister to consider policies and regimes for teachers in general to ensure their lives, especially those working in remote, isolated, and disadvantaged areas. Some opinions were interested in salaries after completing university training, salary classification according to job position...

Opinions say that teachers' current salaries are still low compared to the living standards of the whole society, leading to many teachers having to spend time working extra hours outside of class, thereby limiting their time for self-study and self-improvement to improve their expertise and professionalism.

Low salaries, not enough to cover living expenses, are one of the reasons why many teachers want to quit their jobs and have left to turn to other careers.

According to Minister Nguyen Kim Son, the Government has assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to work with the Ministry of Home Affairs and other ministries and branches; first of all, consider raising preferential allowances for preschool and primary school teachers.

Initially, the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Home Affairs have agreed to increase the allowance for preschool teachers by 10% and for primary school teachers by 5%. "Although the increase is small, it is still a part to encourage and compensate preschool and primary school teachers," Mr. Son shared.

Prime Minister asks 2 ministers to meet urgently to consider allowances for teachers

At the conference to summarize the 2022-2023 school year and deploy tasks for the 2023-2024 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training recognized that there is still a shortage of teachers at all levels of public preschool and general education in many localities across the country.

According to preliminary statistics based on industry data, the country is currently short of 118,253 teachers, an increase of 11,308 compared to the 2021-2022 school year (preschool level increased by 7,887 people, primary level increased by 169 people, secondary level increased by 1,207 people, high school level increased by 2,045 people).

At this conference, one of the directions of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is that ministries, branches, agencies and localities develop, amend and supplement policies and remuneration regimes for teachers; have financial solutions to support teachers in remote areas and preschool teachers; upgrade and supplement facilities and teaching equipment.

"The Ministry of Finance will coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training and relevant ministries and sectors to find financial solutions to support teachers in remote areas and preschool teachers. I request that the two ministers meet urgently to consider allowances for teachers," said Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

According to Vietnamnet