According to the new regulations, the actual teaching time of secondary and high school teachers is 35 weeks instead of 37 weeks as in the old regulations, which reduces pressure on teachers.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just issued Circular 05/2025/TT-BGDDT regulating the working regime for general education and pre-university teachers, effective from April 22.
Reduce the number of teaching periods
According to the new regulations, teachers' working time is implemented according to the school year and converted into teaching hours, including the number of teaching hours in a school year and the average number of teaching hours in a week. The actual teaching time of secondary and high school teachers is 35 weeks instead of 37 weeks as in the old regulations.
Many teachers are excited because the new regulations in the working regime for general education teachers reduce the number of concurrent positions. Photo: DANG TRINH
The Ministry of Education and Training also stipulates that in cases where teachers must be assigned to hold part-time positions, the principal shall give priority to assigning part-time positions to teachers who do not meet the average teaching hours per week and ensure that teachers meet the requirements for performing assigned tasks. In cases where teachers must be assigned to teach more than the average teaching hours per week (including converted teaching hours for part-time tasks), the total number of excess teaching hours per week must not exceed 50% of the average teaching hours per week, and the total number of excess teaching hours per school year must not exceed the number of overtime hours as prescribed by labor laws.
The new circular also adds regulations on the teaching period norm for high school teachers in schools and classes for the disabled to 15 periods/week. Adds regulations on reducing 3 periods/week for teachers who also hold clerical, information technology, library, and educational support positions for the disabled. At the same time, adds regulations on maternity leave for teachers, including regulations on maternity leave coinciding with summer vacation.
Ms. Pham Thi Yen, Principal of Jean Piaget Primary School (Hanoi), assessed that the new regulation is highly supported by teachers because they receive "encouragement and motivation" from the management agency, helping teachers gain more benefits and at the same time increase their responsibility in their work.
"I appreciate the regulation of reducing 3 periods/week for teachers who hold concurrent positions in clerical, information technology, library, etc. In reality, teachers have to take on both professional work and concurrent work, leading to overload. Reducing the teaching period quota for concurrent teachers not only ensures fairness in working time and ensures teachers' rights, but also helps school leaders to assign tasks and mobilize work more easily. The new regulation also shows that the management agency understands the hardships of concurrent teachers," said Ms. Pham Thi Yen.
Mr. Do Dinh Dao, Principal of Nguyen Huu Tho High School (District 4, Ho Chi Minh City), said that Circular 05/2025 of the Ministry of Education and Training clearly and specifically stipulates the working time of principals, vice principals, teachers of general schools..., including the number of weeks of teaching the contents of the program and the number of weeks of studying, improving qualifications, the number of weeks of preparing for the school year and summarizing the school year...
According to Mr. Dao, the clear and detailed regulations as above create favorable conditions for educational institutions to implement the school year plan, ensure the proposed content and requirements, and also be transparent in staff management.
Mr. Dao said that the most important point of the circular is the regulation on the teaching hours of teachers. The average teaching hours of a high school teacher in a week is 17 hours. Principals and vice principals are not allowed to convert the teaching hours to a reduced rate for concurrent positions. When teaching enough teaching hours as prescribed, principals and vice principals are allowed to count the number of extra teaching hours (if any).
Reduce "nameless" work
The principal of a secondary school in Hanoi further analyzed that the regulation that each teacher cannot take on more than two tasks at the same time helps to avoid teachers doing too many tasks at the same time, leading to low efficiency and affecting the quality of teaching. This principal also expressed his agreement with the regulation that the principal decides on the number of converted teaching periods and reports to the competent management authority for tasks that have not been regulated to reduce the teaching period norm or have not been converted into teaching periods. According to this principal, this helps teachers not to be disadvantaged in terms of benefits when teachers do other tasks related to professional work; helps leaders not to be passive when having to ask for opinions from superiors.
According to many general teachers, the new circular also clearly states the cases of reducing the teaching period norm. Specifically, homeroom teachers in general schools are reduced by 4 periods/week. Heads of professional groups or heads of subject groups are reduced by 3 periods/week; deputy heads of professional groups or deputy heads of subject groups are reduced by 1 period/week. Teachers concurrently working as student counselors: The number of reduced periods of teachers assigned to concurrently work as student counselors is decided by the principal to ensure the principle of being consistent with the assigned workload. The total number of reduced periods of all teachers concurrently working as student counselors is not higher than 8 periods/week. Teachers who teach students to review for entrance exams, review for graduation exams, and tutor students are also converted to direct or online teaching periods...".
The above clear regulations are for teachers to have a basis for calculating the exact teaching hour norms, especially for teachers who do "unnamed" jobs at school, which are actually very hard work, but for a long time, depending on the educational institution, teachers have not been allowed to calculate the norms. This affects both the classification of teachers as having completed or not having completed their tasks" - a teacher at a high school in District 11, Ho Chi Minh City said.
Meanwhile, Mr. Huynh Thanh Phu, Principal of Bui Thi Xuan High School (District 1), said that the new circular is actually not much different from the previous regulations, especially the regulations on working hours, teaching hours of principals, vice principals, etc. According to Mr. Phu, the new circular stipulates the summer vacation of principals, but in reality this is very difficult to apply. "During the summer, there are many things that require the role of the principal, participating in admission exams, studying and training, preparing for the new school year, etc., which means there is almost no summer vacation time" - Mr. Phu acknowledged.
Less worry about tutoring
The Ministry of Education and Training also added some cases where the teaching period norm can be converted. For teachers who teach students to review for entrance exams or graduation exams, 1 teaching period is counted as 1 standard period. For teachers who teach remedial classes for students with poor academic performance or teach extra classes for students whose final semester results are not satisfactory, 1 teaching period can be converted to a maximum of 1.5 standard periods.
According to Circular 29 on extra teaching and learning, teachers participating in tutoring students or tutoring students with unsatisfactory learning results are considered duties and cannot be converted into teaching hours or receive remuneration. With the new regulation, tutoring hours for entrance exams, graduation exams or tutoring weak students are converted into teaching hours. This helps teachers feel less worried because their work and effort are recognized.
Source: https://nld.com.vn/che-do-lam-viec-moi-cua-giao-vien-giam-ap-luc-196250311204157745.htm
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