HIGHEST TEACHER SALARY: NEW HOPE AFTER 10 YEARS OF WAITING
At the end of 2023, the Ministry of Education and Training held a conference to review 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW (Resolution 29, dated November 4, 2013) of the 11th Party Central Committee on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education and training. Looking back at 10 years of implementing Resolution 29, the most worrying thing, according to delegates, is that the policy of "prioritizing teachers' salaries to be the highest in the administrative and career salary scale system" has not been implemented. Previously in August, when Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son met with teachers nationwide for the first time, teacher salaries were also the issue that many teachers and educational institutions raised the most.
Teacher salaries have been an educational issue of concern for many years and will continue to be raised in 2024.
The Ministry of Education and Training pointed out that there are still many shortcomings in working conditions and the regime and policies for teachers are not commensurate; teachers' salaries are still low compared to the general level of other professions (in the first 5 years, the average teacher's salary was only 5 million VND/month), not meeting the target set in Resolution 29; salaries and regimes have not created motivation in the context of increasing work pressure for teachers.
"The number of teachers quitting their jobs tends to increase mainly due to professional pressure and inadequate salary policies. The teaching staff is affected by many different regulations, so adjusting policies for teachers is difficult," said the Ministry of Education and Training.
In the question-and-answer session at the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly, the issue of teachers' salaries received the attention of many delegates. Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra affirmed that in the coming time, when implementing salary reform, the Ministry of Home Affairs will base on Resolution 27 on salary reform, especially thoroughly implementing Resolution 29 of the Central Committee. Accordingly, teachers' salaries are given priority in the highest salary scale in the administrative career system.
This time, the promise that "teachers' salaries will be prioritized to be placed on the highest salary scale in the administrative system" was firmly stated by the head of the internal affairs sector before the National Assembly, in the context that this sector is leading the construction of a major and expected reform of salaries. That gives teachers the right to trust and hope.
The Ministry of Education and Training proposed that in addition to increasing teachers' salaries to the highest level in the administrative career salary scale system, it is necessary to arrange school staff salaries appropriately when implementing the new salary policy from July 2024.
P HAI HUN BOI AT THE SAME TIME ALL 3 "SALARIES"
Associate Professor Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Principal of the University of Education (Vietnam National University, Hanoi), suggested that it is necessary to find policies to increase teachers' monthly salaries. Do not let one of the "3 salaries" drop. We must simultaneously nurture all three "salaries": their conscience, their conscience, and their monthly salary to ensure they are adequate.
Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son, speaking at the conference summarizing the implementation of Resolution 29, also said: "The issue of resources includes education finance, investment in education and human resources, two very important keywords are money and people. We are increasingly aware of the decisive role of teachers in this innovation process and we will certainly have to do more to develop the teaching staff to complete the goals of educational innovation in the near future."
One of the key tasks to be done in the coming time is to focus on building a safe, happy, healthy and friendly school environment.
ENHANCE TEACHER POSITION, SCHOOL CULTURE
As the new school year 2023 - 2024 began more than a month ago, many sad incidents occurred in many localities, causing public outrage. Students at a private high school in Hanoi were threatened with expulsion because their parents protested about the school's revenue and expenditure; the head teacher threatened not to let them take the graduation exam, dragging a 12th grade female student in front of the classroom door because she disobeyed her; a teacher verbally abused a student; parents in Thai Binh protested against the class fund being "suggested" to transfer their children to another school...
However, not only are students abused by teachers, parents are "forced" by schools to voluntarily pay contributions or take extra classes under the guise of tutoring, but teachers are also subjects that need to be protected from school violence. A typical incident occurred at Van Phu Secondary School (Son Duong District, Tuyen Quang), where students cornered a female teacher, cursed, and made challenging remarks. The clip, after being posted on social networks, attracted a lot of public attention, with most of the comments expressing outrage.
In a document sent to the People's Committee of Tuyen Quang province, the Ministry of Education and Training called this a serious ethical violation against teachers and requested the Provincial People's Committee to direct, verify and clarify the incident. On that basis, there will be strict handling measures according to the level of violation. The Ministry of Education and Training also directed the Department of Education and Training to draw profound lessons from the incident, while focusing on strengthening the management and evaluation of teachers; building the teaching staff; strengthening school discipline, and building school culture.
School culture and democracy are truly alarming from the consecutive prominent incidents that occurred in the past year, despite the fact that there were no shortage of previous directives. Since 2000, the Ministry of Education and Training has issued regulations on democracy in school activities. In order to improve the quality and effectiveness of building school culture, creating fundamental changes in the cultural behavior of managers, teachers, staff, students, and university students, in 2018, the Prime Minister approved the Project on building a culture of behavior in schools for the period 2018 - 2025. Not long after that, on April 12, 2019, the Ministry of Education and Training also issued a circular regulating the code of conduct in preschool, general education, and continuing education institutions.
Strengthening coordination between family, school and society in student education
BUILDING A SAFE AND HAPPY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
Many opinions point out that in schools today, only achievements are evaluated to serve the purpose of competition, not to implement the goals of democracy and culture. All activities of checking and evaluating educational activities of the school are only formal, mainly listening and reading according to the principal's report.
Associate Professor Chu Cam Tho (Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences) stated: "The elders in the teaching profession, previous studies in the East and West all say that "teachers are teachers, students are students" is the root of education. So no matter where they teach, who they teach, teachers must have authority. This authority does not come naturally but requires training of both mind, heart and strength. When detecting violations, even if they are very small, the teaching staff must consider them serious and handle them thoroughly. All students are unfortunate if they encounter teachers without qualities. Schools cannot be peaceful if they cannot maintain school discipline, which is similar to family discipline."
Summarizing Resolution 29, the Ministry of Education and Training also recognized that one of the key tasks to be done in the coming time is to strengthen the coordination between families, schools and society in educating students; focusing on building a safe, happy, healthy and friendly school environment for children, students and pupils to develop comprehensively in terms of qualities and abilities. In addition, it is important to focus on building and developing school culture, creating the most favorable environment and conditions to arouse the tradition of patriotism, belief, aspiration and national pride in students.
60% of all teachers who quit are under 35 years old
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the number of teachers quitting their jobs is on the rise, with teachers under the age of 35 accounting for 60% of the total number of teachers quitting their jobs. In the 3 school years from August 2020 to August 2023, more than 40,000 teachers nationwide quit their jobs. In addition, the average number of teachers retiring each year is about 10,000. The number of teachers quitting their jobs is increasing in the context that the country is still short of 118,253 teachers at all levels. The quality of the staff is not uniform between regions, and there is also a difference between regions with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions and favorable regions.
Not only the teachers directly teaching in the classroom, the Ministry of Education and Training pointed out the reality that many accounting staff in schools had to quit their jobs to find other jobs. In the 2021-2022 school year, more than 1,300 employees on the payroll quit their jobs; in the 2022-2023 school year, more than 1,400 employees on the payroll quit their jobs. Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training has received many letters from accounting staff to all levels requesting consideration of salary increases for this team.
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