Sharing about the five key years of innovation in general education programs and improving teachers' lives, Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that 2023 and 2024 are identified as having special significance in the roadmap of education innovation, especially general education with the implementation of the new general education program.
The program is currently being implemented synchronously across the country, at all levels of education, and is more than halfway through. The workload the industry is undertaking is enormous, both to learn from experience and to continue implementing the new general education program with the classes that have been implemented, to newly implement with grades 4, 8, and 11, and to prepare conditions for the 3 final grades.
Regarding increasing income for teachers, recently, the Ministry of Education and Training has advised the Government and the Prime Minister to promulgate and promulgate legal documents on regimes and policies to support and gradually overcome difficulties for teachers.
In particular, preschool teachers are given special attention such as: salary regime, preferential allowances, seniority allowances, regional allowances, attraction allowances, long-term work allowances, first-time allowances, one-time allowances when transferring to work out of areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.
Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son.
The Ministry of Education and Training is coordinating with ministries and branches to submit to the Government a proposal to increase preferential allowances for preschool teachers and propose a salary policy in the spirit of Resolution No. 27-NQ/CP, with priority given to teachers.
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%. They are currently in the process of completing the documents to submit to the Government for consideration.
- How do these efforts change the treatment of teachers, especially preschool teachers, sir?
This increase is not as expected at 10-25%, but it is also a great source of spiritual encouragement for millions of teachers to increase their income, ensure their lives and solve the problem of how to attract and retain teachers to stay in the profession. Therefore, I really hope that ministries and branches will consider and support so that the "small but meaningful" allowance will be implemented soon.
The Ministry of Education and Training has agreed with the Ministry of Home Affairs to rank salaries according to the standard training level (Education Law 2019). Accordingly, newly recruited preschool teachers will be ranked at a starting salary coefficient of 2.10 instead of 1.86 as before.
In addition, to help non-public preschool teachers overcome difficulties caused by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education and Training advised the Government to issue a Resolution on supporting non-public preschool teachers. As a result, nearly 50,000 teachers were supported with a budget of nearly VND 160 billion.
By July 1, 2024, teachers' salaries will continue to increase after salary reform. This is something to look forward to, hoping that life will be increasingly improved, teachers will be able to make a living from their profession. From then on, teachers will be able to confidently devote themselves to the career of educating people.
- Although the Ministry of Education and Training has made many efforts to increase salaries and allowances for teachers, you still have many concerns?
In general, teachers' salaries and professional allowances are not commensurate with their professional activities, not enough to meet the needs of social security, not enough to ensure teachers' living standards. Low income is the main reason leading to teachers not being satisfied with their work, quitting their jobs, changing jobs, quitting jobs, lack of recruitment sources, and not being able to attract good people to the teaching profession.
As of now, the country is still short of 127,583 teachers. This number is constantly increasing because the number of students at the beginning of the last school year increased significantly (Binh Duong province alone increased by 35,000 students).
In addition, the situation of teachers quitting and changing jobs continues. As of September 2023, 17,278 teachers nationwide had quit or changed jobs.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Home Affairs, currently, provinces still have more than 74,000 unused quotas. There are many reasons, some places use them to cut 10% of the payroll, but there are also places that do not have a source of recruitment.
In addition, the number of teachers retiring is about 10,000 people per year on average. The recruitment situation in localities is facing many difficulties. In 2022, the Politburo and the Secretariat approved and assigned the Government to arrange more than 27,000 positions out of a total of more than 65,000 teacher positions, partially offsetting the recruitment needs.
However, compared to the number of shortages, this number is still modest and has not fundamentally solved the problem of teacher shortage. Therefore, the most important thing is how to have enough teachers; how to make teachers truly live by their profession, feel motivated and continue to strive for innovation and self-innovation.
- What solutions will the Minister and units under the Ministry of Education and Training have in the coming time to resolve the above backlog, sir?
In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will proactively overcome professional issues to help teachers work more conveniently and reduce stress and pressure. The Ministry will strengthen guidance and research, and make appropriate adjustments to help teachers reduce difficulties, especially in integrated subjects at secondary school level.
The Ministry also directed more closely pedagogical universities to train teachers to have enough recruitment sources; adjusted Decree 116, removed some obstacles related to the local ordering mechanism as well as supported living expenses for pedagogical students.
The Ministry of Education and Training is also in the process of submitting to the National Assembly for temporary permission to recruit preschool teachers according to the standards of the old Education Law, requiring that teachers must meet the standards by 2030. This is also considered a temporary measure to have a flexible source of teachers for Information Technology and Foreign Languages.
I think that, for the education sector, perhaps the most needed thing right now is a Resolution assigning the Ministry of Education and Training to prepare and submit to the Government and the National Assembly plans to strengthen conditions to ensure educational innovation.
Without the minimum conditions such as enough teachers and classrooms; solid and spacious classrooms; enough public housing for teachers in remote areas; enough toilets for schools; enough equipment for education; enough financial investment for activities..., then no matter how hard we try, it will be difficult to achieve our expectations and big goals.
Minister of Education and Training visits and encourages students and teachers at the beginning of the new school year 2023 - 2024.
- After nearly 3 years in the position of “commander” of the education sector, it can be seen that the sector has done many important things. So in the coming time, what issues will the Minister pay attention to and solve?
The Ministry of Education and Training is researching, summarizing, and evaluating the past 10 years of innovation and proposing directions to promote what has been done, and at the same time adjusting to do better in order to achieve the goal of human development, providing high-quality human resources for the country in the journey of national development and international integration.
In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training continues to implement the requirements of the general education program innovation according to the new program, and in more than 2 years, it will complete the journey from grades 1 to 12.
We see that these are important years, both implementing the remaining contents and evaluating each content and each task in practice so that by 2025 we can have a relatively complete view of the entire process of general education innovation, and be ready to make adjustments for the better in the next stage if deemed necessary.
In the next few years, we will test and put into practice the new preschool education program. With all three stages of preschool education, general education and higher education simultaneously innovating and achieving educational quality, it will be possible to bring comprehensive results to the industry.
- Entering the new year 2024, what message does the Minister send to students, teachers and parents?
In many recent forums of the education sector, the Ministry of Education and Training has reminded schools, teachers, and education managers to pay attention to sharing, mobilizing, and exchanging with parents. The education sector is in the process of innovation, one of the important factors to ensure good innovation results is the coordination, sharing, and companionship of parents.
I hope that in the future, parents will continue to pay attention to the new features in education. The coordination between parents and schools is an important step to ensure that students have a safe school year and that schools can achieve the goals of the school year.
Thank you very much!
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