New policies on teachers' working conditions take effect today

Teachers are reduced to a maximum of 8 periods/week.

According to Circular 05/2025/TT-BGDDT issued on March 7, the working time in the school year of principals, vice principals, and teachers of general schools is 42 weeks, of which the number of weeks teaching the contents of the general education program is 37 weeks.

The teaching quota for primary school teachers is 23 periods, secondary school teachers is 19 periods, high school teachers is 17 periods. Teachers of ethnic boarding schools are regulated to have 2 periods lower, respectively 21, 17 and 15 periods.

Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BGDDT stipulates the working regime for general education and university preparatory teachers. Illustrative photo

The notable point of the Circular is the reduction in teaching hours. In particular, homeroom teachers in general schools are reduced by 4 hours/week.

The head of a professional group or head of a subject group will have 3 periods reduced per week; the deputy head of a professional group or deputy head of a subject group will have 1 period reduced per week...

Teachers who are also party secretaries or party cell secretaries (where no party cell is established) in schools with 28 or more classes in regions 2 and 3, or 19 or more classes in region 1 will have their teaching hours reduced by 4 periods/week; in the remaining schools, their teaching hours will be reduced by 3 periods/week.

Part-time positions are reduced by 3 periods/week such as: Head teacher of university preparatory school, part-time teacher of information technology (in charge of all computer rooms), clerk, librarian (in charge of the library room), support work for education of people with disabilities, female teachers raising children under 12 months old...

The Circular also stipulates the reduction of norms in many other positions; adds regulations on the reduction of teaching norms for teachers who concurrently hold academic affairs, student counseling, clerical, library, etc.

Adjusting regulations on the maximum number of tasks that teachers are allowed to hold concurrently

Regulations stipulate that each teacher cannot hold more than 2 concurrent positions (including concurrent professional work, Party work, mass organizations, other organizations and some other job positions).

At the same time, if concurrent tasks have received remuneration or allowances, the teaching hour norm cannot be reduced or converted into teaching hours (except for concurrent tasks of head and deputy head of professional groups, concurrent tasks of head and deputy head of functional departments, concurrent tasks of party, trade union, and youth union work) (Clause 3, Article 3).

Principals and vice principals are not allowed to convert the reduced teaching hours for concurrent positions. When teaching enough teaching hours as prescribed, principals and vice principals are allowed to count extra teaching hours (if any).

Supplementing regulations on leave for teachers

Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BGDDT stipulates that the annual leave of principals, vice principals, and teachers will include summer vacation, holidays, Tet, and other holidays as prescribed by the Labor Code and the Law on Social Insurance.

The Circular adds that in cases where the summer vacation and maternity leave of female teachers overlap, in addition to the prescribed vacation time, the teacher's vacation time includes: Maternity leave time according to regulations; summer vacation time outside of maternity leave (before or after maternity leave).

In case a male teacher is entitled to maternity leave when his wife gives birth according to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance, during the maternity leave, the male teacher is entitled to teach the prescribed teaching hours and does not have to make up for it. In case the male teacher's maternity leave when his wife gives birth coincides with the summer vacation, he is not entitled to make up for it.

Principals and vice principals are entitled to summer vacation like teachers, which is flexibly arranged during the school year and during summer vacation.

However, to ensure the normal operation of the school and avoid the situation where all managers are off at the same time, the summer vacation schedule of managers must be reported to the management agency.

Convert other professional activities into teaching periods

Another point is that Circular 05 stipulates the conversion of direct (or online) teaching periods into standard periods for many types of professional activities.

The school principal shall base on the scale and level of each activity to specifically determine the conversion of teaching periods according to the provisions of this clause after receiving consensus from the School Council.

This Circular replaces Circular No. 28/2009/TT-BGDDT dated October 21, 2009 regulating the working regime for general education teachers.

Adjusting regulations on teachers' actual teaching time

The actual teaching time for secondary and high school teachers is 35 weeks instead of 37 weeks for teaching and educational activities as in the old regulations. At the same time, 2 reserve weeks are added for teachers to complete educational content in the general education program (point a, clause 1, Article 5).

Adjusting the way of regulating teaching hours for teachers who are Team Leaders

The teaching hours of teachers working as Team Leaders are regulated by hours/week (instead of the current ratio), and only 2 levels are regulated.

In particular, schools with a scale equivalent to a grade 1 school will retain the current 2-period norm; for the remaining schools, the regulations are equivalent to the teaching period norm of a grade 2 school (points d, e, g, clause 3, Article 7).

Source: https://baohatinh.vn/loat-chinh-sach-moi-ve-che-do-lam-viec-cua-giao-vien-co-hieu-luc-tu-hom-nay-post286438.html