Basically, the major contents of the Law on Teachers have been unified.

On the morning of February 7th, within the framework of the 42nd session, the Standing Committee of the 15th National Assembly discussed and gave opinions on the report on the acceptance, explanation, and revision of the draft Law on Teachers.

Deputy Speakers of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai, Nguyen Thi Thanh, Tran Quang Phuong, and Nguyen Khac Dinh presided over the session. Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son and leaders from several relevant ministries and agencies also attended.

Scene from the meeting

The draft Law on Teachers was first discussed at the 8th Session of the 15th National Assembly (October 2024).

Reporting on some major issues regarding the reception, explanation, and revision of the draft Law on Teachers, the Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education , Nguyen Dac Vinh, stated: At the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly, National Assembly deputies discussed the draft Law on Teachers with 131 opinions expressed by National Assembly deputies.

Following the directives of the National Assembly Standing Committee and the assigned tasks, the Standing Committee of the Culture and Education Committee has coordinated with the drafting agency, the Law Committee, and other relevant agencies to research, incorporate, explain, and revise the draft Law. To date, the agencies have basically reached a consensus on the content of the draft Law and the incorporation and explanation of the opinions of National Assembly deputies.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, Nguyen Dac Vinh, reported at the session.

The revised draft Law comprises 9 chapters and 46 articles, a reduction of 4 articles compared to the draft presented at the 8th Session. The revisions reflect the spirit of innovative thinking in legislative work, stipulating only general, principled content and matters within the National Assembly's authority; detailed guidance is provided in the draft decrees and circulars included in the Law on Teachers project dossier.

According to the Standing Committee of the Committee on Culture and Education, delegating recruitment authority to the education sector is necessary, ensuring both the practicality of recruitment and enhancing responsibility, creating conditions for the education sector to proactively recruit, utilize, manage, and develop teachers, meeting requirements in terms of quantity, structure, and quality; contributing to overcoming the situation of localized surpluses and shortages and imbalances in the structure of teachers.

In response to feedback from National Assembly deputies, the draft Law has been adjusted as follows: for public educational institutions granted autonomy, the head of the institution is responsible for recruitment and accountable for their decisions; for public educational institutions not yet granted autonomy, the competent authority managing the institution is responsible for teacher recruitment, or this responsibility is delegated to the educational management agency or the head of the institution. The educational management agency is responsible for advising the competent authority managing the institution on recruitment or for advising on the delegation of recruitment authority; autonomous non-public educational institutions conduct recruitment according to their own organizational and operational regulations.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh speaks at the session.

"The above adjustments affirm the leading advisory role and responsibility of the education management agency; ensuring consistency with the provisions of the Law on Organization of Local Government, the Law on Public Employees, and the Labor Code," Mr. Nguyen Dac Vinh informed.

Regarding the policy on early retirement for preschool teachers, the Standing Committee of the Culture and Education Committee believes that allowing preschool teachers to retire earlier than the legally prescribed age is a policy developed based on the unique characteristics of this professional activity and is appropriate for the specific needs of preschool children as learners.

Taking into account the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law has been revised and supplemented with a provision that teachers in preschool education institutions, if they so wish, may retire at an age lower than the normal retirement age for workers, but not by more than 5 years, and without a reduction in the percentage of pension benefits due to early retirement, if they have contributed to social insurance for 20 years or more.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong speaks at the session.

Regarding the retirement scheme for teachers at a higher age, the Standing Committee believes that it is necessary and reasonable to stipulate that teachers with high qualifications, academic titles, and degrees, as well as teachers working in specialized fields, may have their working time extended and retire at a higher age. This aims to utilize and exploit high-quality human resources and address the shortage of highly qualified teachers in certain specialized fields that the country's development needs.

The draft law also clearly stipulates the conditions for implementing this policy: when the educational institution has a need, the teacher is in good health and voluntarily extends their working time; and adds the criterion of "meeting the standards and conditions of the educational institution". During the period of extended retirement age, teachers in public educational institutions who do not hold leadership or management positions are not entitled to retain leadership or management allowances.

In response to the opinions of National Assembly deputies, and to address the limitations and shortcomings in the management and operation of enterprises affiliated with higher education institutions, the reviewing agency and the drafting agency have agreed to propose adding the right of educators to participate in the management and operation of enterprises established by higher education institutions operating in the field of scientific development, application, and technology transfer. Simultaneously, they will review and amend the provisions of related laws in the transitional clauses.

Head of the Delegation Affairs Committee Nguyen Thanh Hai speaks at the meeting.

Responding to feedback from National Assembly deputies, the draft Law has been revised. Accordingly, teachers are entitled to housing under the provisions of the Housing Law or guaranteed collective housing when working in ethnic minority areas, mountainous regions, border areas, islands, and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions. Furthermore, a provision has been added stating that if collective housing or official housing cannot be provided, teachers will receive housing rental support at the same rate as official housing rental support; the criterion of "meeting all essential conditions" has been removed from the regulations on collective housing for teachers.

At the meeting, members of the National Assembly Standing Committee provided feedback on the report summarizing, explaining, and revising the draft Law on Teachers. The opinions generally praised the thorough and meticulous preparation by the drafting agency and the reviewing agency; and expressed agreement with the report summarizing and revising the draft Law on Teachers.

To further refine the draft Law, comments and discussions related to the rights and obligations of teachers, teacher ethics; teacher recruitment; teacher training and professional development; teacher assignment and transfer… Some opinions suggested that the drafting agency should soon finalize the decrees and circulars, as a basis for the National Assembly to consider and pass the Law on Teachers.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son speaks at the meeting.

Minister Nguyen Kim Son expressed his gratitude to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the Committee on Culture and Education, and other National Assembly agencies for their responsible support and assistance in the process of receiving feedback, providing explanations, and finalizing the draft Law on Teachers. He stated that the drafting committee will continue to closely coordinate with the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education to seriously incorporate and revise, to the best of its ability, the contributions of the members of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly at its 42nd session.

In explaining some specific issues raised by members of the National Assembly Standing Committee regarding teachers' duties, teacher recruitment decentralization, regulations on what teachers are not allowed to do, etc., Minister Nguyen Kim Son also shared that the draft Law on Teachers is a new law, the teaching force is large, and many issues are difficult to detail in the Law's regulations. Therefore, the draft Law aims to address major issues and requirements.

Concluding the session, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh remarked: The opinions expressed highly appreciated the proactive and positive leadership and coordination of the Standing Committee on Culture, Education and the Ministry of Education and Training, along with other relevant agencies, in fully incorporating and addressing the opinions of National Assembly deputies at the 8th session to revise the draft Law on Teachers. The documents submitted to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly were prepared seriously, with high quality and completeness in accordance with regulations.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh delivered the concluding remarks at the session.

The opinions also generally agreed with the content of the draft Law as reported, proposed, incorporated, and revised by the relevant agencies; the major contents were basically agreed upon.

In conclusion, Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh also exchanged views and expressed her opinions on the issues discussed during the session, related to state management of teachers; recruitment and employment of teachers; rights and obligations of teachers; policies on teacher remuneration; retirement policies for teachers; teachers' salaries; funding for teacher training and professional development; regulations on training of teachers and lecturers, etc.

Emphasizing that the Law on Teachers is of great interest to the teaching staff and public opinion nationwide, and that the Standing Committee members all hope it will be a model law, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh suggested that coordination between the two agencies is needed to incorporate as many opinions as possible into the draft law. The spirit of the report should be concise, persuasive, and explanatory, with the hope that the Law on Teachers will be voted on with the highest possible consensus rate.

The Vice Chairman of the National Assembly requested the Standing Committee of the Committee on Culture and Education to continue refining the draft Law and submit it to the Government for official comments on the incorporated and revised contents; to consult with laws currently being amended, including the Law on the Promulgation of Legal Normative Documents, to ensure consistency and uniformity between the Law on Teachers and related laws; and to finalize the draft law and detailed documents for submission to the National Assembly at the 9th session.

Source: https://moet.gov.vn/tintuc/Pages/tin-tong-hop.aspx?ItemID=10271