New regulations on teacher appointment and salary classification take effect from May 30, 2023

On April 14, 2023, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) issued Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDDT amending and supplementing a number of articles of Circulars No. 01/2021/TT-BGDDT, 02/2021/TT-BGDDT, 03/2021/TT-BGDDT, 04/2021/TT-BGDDT regulating codes, professional title standards and appointment and salary arrangement for teaching staff in public preschool and general education institutions. The Circular takes effect from May 30, 2023.

Eliminate the regulation that teachers must have a training certificate according to professional title standards by rank.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, at the time of issuance of Circulars No. 01/2021/TT-BGDĐT, 02/2021/TT-BGDĐT, 03/2021/TT-BGDĐT, 04/2021/TT-BGDĐT (Circular 01-04), regulations on training certificates according to professional title standards shall be implemented in accordance with Decree No. 101/2017/ND-CP dated September 1, 2017 of the Government on training and fostering of cadres, civil servants and public employees. Accordingly, teachers at each level of education have 03 certificates corresponding to 03 professional title levels.

However, on October 18, 2021, the Government issued Decree No. 89/2021/ND-CP amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 101/2017/ND-CP (effective from December 10, 2021) and adjusting the regulations on training programs according to professional title standards for specialized civil servants as follows: each specialized field has 01 program, the maximum implementation time is 06 weeks.

Therefore, in Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDDT, the Ministry of Education and Training has adjusted the regulations on training certificates according to professional title standards (hereinafter referred to as certificates) as follows:

Only one general certificate is prescribed for all teacher categories. Each level of education has only one training program according to professional title standards.

Teachers who have one of the certificates according to the grade of the level they are teaching before June 30, 2022 will be determined to meet the certificate requirements, used when taking the exam or considering promotion to professional title and do not have to attend the training program according to the professional title standards of teachers corresponding to each level.

When appointing or transferring the corresponding professional title of teachers according to the provisions of Circulars 01-04 and when transferring professional titles, teachers are not required to have a certificate. Newly recruited teachers must have a certificate according to the regulations during the probationary period.

Regulations on general professional ethics standards for professional titles

To be consistent with the regulations on professional ethics standards in other documents regulating CDNN standards and not to disrupt the assessment of professional ethics standards of preschool and general education teachers as previously prescribed in Joint Circulars No. 20, 21, 22, 23/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV regulating codes and standards for professional titles of preschool and general education teachers (replaced by Circular 01-04), in Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDĐT, the Ministry of Education and Training removes the regulations on professional ethics standards for each professional title level and only regulates general professional ethics for teachers of all levels.

Primary and secondary school teachers (THCS) grade I are not required to have a master's degree.

According to Circular No. 02,03, primary and secondary school teachers of grade I must have a master's degree or higher in teacher training for primary/secondary school teachers or a master's degree or higher in a major appropriate to the subject taught or a master's degree or higher in educational management.

At the time of issuance of Circular No. 02,03, there were no primary school teachers of grade I because this was a new rank added to the regulations in Joint Circular No. 21/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV. However, some old grade I junior high school teachers did not have a master's degree as prescribed, so they were temporarily appointed to the new professional title of grade II junior high school teachers.

In these cases, after meeting the standards of the new grade I, they will be appointed to the new professional title of grade I junior high school teacher without having to go through an exam or promotion review (details in Clause 3, Article 9 of Circular No. 03/2021/TT-BGDDT).

Although the temporary appointment to the new professional title of grade II junior high school teacher is not a "demotion" as some teachers think, but an appointment to a rank corresponding to the level of meeting the standards according to the regulations of the rank.

At the same time, all the benefits and policies that teachers currently enjoy are still guaranteed, without any adjustments. However, this still affects the psychology of a part of secondary school teachers.

Grasping the concerns of the staff, the Ministry of Education and Training has reviewed the regulations on training qualifications of primary and secondary school teachers based on research on the requirements of implementing primary and secondary school education programs.

Accordingly, the goal of primary education is to form the initial foundation for the development of morality, intelligence, physical strength, aesthetics, and capacity of students; to prepare students to continue studying at secondary school.

The goal of secondary education is to consolidate and develop the results of primary education; ensure that students have basic general education, minimum necessary knowledge of techniques and career orientation to continue studying in high school or vocational education programs.

Thus, with the requirement of teaching and providing basic and fundamental knowledge, the regulation that primary and secondary school teachers of grade I must have a master's degree is unnecessary.

Therefore, in Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDDT, the Ministry of Education and Training adjusts the regulations on the training level of primary and secondary school teachers, grade I, to university.

Teachers are ranked in salary corresponding to the professional title assigned.

When Circular No. 01-03 was implemented by localities, some problems arose such as: Preschool teachers who did not meet the standards of the new professional title of grade II were appointed to the new professional title of grade III and their salary was changed from civil servants of type A1 (2.34) to A0 (2.10). However, Circular No. 01 did not provide specific instructions on salary arrangement in this case.

When primary and secondary school teachers meet the standards for appointment to the new grade II and change their salary from civil servants of grade A1 (2.34) to A2.2 (4.0), teachers who are currently enjoying salary coefficients of 2.34, 2.67, 3.00 (in cases of being appointed to a higher grade immediately after recruitment due to having a higher training level than the standard level according to regulations) and 3.33, 3.66, 3.99 will all be transferred to salary coefficient 4.0.

The Ministry of Education and Training has researched and consulted relevant agencies, collected opinions from more than 580,000 preschool and general education teachers and decided to maintain the current regulation that teachers appointed to a professional title will be ranked according to that rank to ensure compliance with the salary ranking principles in Decree No. 204/2004/ND-CP, and at the same time, amend and supplement the following contents:

When appointing from the old rank to the corresponding new rank, only 2 criteria are considered: training level and time holding the next lower rank; teachers are not required to have evidence of other criteria.

In case the teacher has not met the standards of the corresponding rank (training level and time holding the rank), he/she will continue to hold the rank, code and salary coefficient of the current professional title as classified according to Joint Circular No. 20, 21, 22/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV, and will not be appointed to the next lower rank. When meeting the prescribed conditions, he/she will be appointed to the corresponding professional title without having to go through an exam or consider promotion.

The above amendments and supplements will help simplify the appointment and salary arrangement, avoiding the need for teachers to provide unnecessary evidence. At the same time, it will overcome the difficulties in arranging salaries for preschool teachers and there will be no cases of newly recruited primary and secondary school teachers holding salary coefficients of 2.34, 2.67, 3.00 being appointed to new grade II and transferred to salary coefficient 4.00. Ensuring consistency in regulations on the time to hold ranks between levels of education and regulations of the Ministry of Home Affairs on the time to hold ranks of cadres, specialists, and senior specialists.

Adjust the time to hold the professional title of preschool teacher grade III from 9 years to 3 years

The regulation on the time to hold a CDNN for preschool teachers level III is 9 years in Circular No. 02 to ensure compliance with the regulations on the minimum working time in the category according to Decree 204/2004/ND-CP.

However, the difference in salary coefficient between grade III (according to the salary table of grade A0 civil servants with a starting salary coefficient of 2.10) and grade II (according to the salary table of grade A1 civil servants with a starting salary coefficient of 2.34) is not much. If the requirement for holding the rank for 9 years is met, it will reduce the motivation of preschool teachers.

Therefore, in Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDĐT, the Ministry of Education and Training adjusted the time to hold the professional title of preschool teacher grade III from 9 years to 3 years to be consistent with other sectors and fields (for example, the regulation on the time to hold the position of officer is 03 years according to Circular 02/2021/TT-BNV of the Ministry of Home Affairs).

However, the period of holding the professional title of kindergarten teacher grade II is increased from 6 years to 9 years to ensure compliance with the provisions of Decree 204/2004/ND-CP. At the same time, it is consistent with the provisions on the period of holding grade III for general teachers and the provisions on the period of holding the rank/grade for other titles that are also subject to the salary scale of other civil servants/public employees of grade A1.

Preschool and primary school teachers do not need to submit proof of having performed the work of the rank when being appointed from the old professional title rank to the new professional title rank.

Circular 01-04 stipulates the duties of each rank so that after teachers are appointed to the rank, they will perform them if assigned by the principal.

However, when making appointments from an old professional title rank to a new professional title rank, some localities require teachers to have sufficient evidence of having performed the duties of the rank, leading to teachers being unable to provide sufficient evidence and therefore not being appointed to the corresponding rank.

To overcome this situation in some localities, the Ministry of Education and Training has added regulations in Clause 2, Article 5 of Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDDT as follows:

Clarifying the regulations on tasks for each professional title rank: these are the tasks that teachers perform after being appointed to the rank and during the time holding the rank if assigned by the principal and the principal can assign teachers to perform tasks of a higher rank if the teacher is capable.

When promoted to the corresponding rank, teachers are not required to have evidence of having performed the duties of the rank.

In addition, it should be noted that in Circular 01-04, the Ministry of Education and Training has stipulated: For tasks according to professional title ranks that public kindergartens and general schools are not assigned or are not qualified to perform, they can be converted to other related tasks as a basis for evaluating the performance of teachers.

Thus, the regulations on teachers' duties are not rigid and mandatory for all preschool and general education institutions and are not mandatory tasks that all teachers must perform.

In addition, Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDĐ also adds transitional provisions and applicable provisions to make it more convenient for localities to appoint professional titles and arrange teachers' salaries.

Specifically: Regulations on the principles of transferring professional titles (Clause 5, Article 5), principles of appointing professional titles for cases where teachers still hold civil servant codes or still hold teacher ranks with the code starting with "15.", "15a.", "15c." (Clause 6, Article 5).

Regulations on meeting requirements on pedagogical skills for those with a college degree in pedagogy or intermediate pedagogical skills or a pedagogical skills certificate issued before May 22, 2021 (Clause 8, Article 5).

Clarify the concept of appropriate majors to facilitate the recruitment and use of teachers (Clause 9, Article 5).

Appointment of professional titles and salary classification for cases where teachers are assigned to teach new subjects, subjects with a shortage of teachers, or integrated subjects (Clause 10, Article 5).

Re-appointment of cases based on training level to appoint to higher rank without going through promotion exam (Clause 12, Article 5).

To stabilize the recruitment, use, and management of the team and help the teaching staff feel secure in their work and focus on effectively implementing the educational program, the Ministry of Education and Training recommends that localities urgently study the regulations to adjust and complete the appointment and salary arrangement of public preschool and general education teachers within 06 months from the effective date of Circular No. 08/2023/TT-BGDĐ.

According to the Government