Low salary deters talents, males from teaching career

Students of Pedagogy University in Hanoi hold an extra activity (Photo: SGGP)

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) held a meeting on December 5 in Hanoi to ask for suggestions on the bill to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Education Law. Most delegates agreed with the amendments to 29/120 articles of the Education Law, especially issues regarding to increasing salary levels of teachers, providing free education for junior high students, and such.

Opinions from the Departments of Education and Training of Hanoi, Lao Cai, etc. agreed that salary levels of teachers are too low to attract talents or the males. At the moment, the salary level of newly graduated teachers is at VND 2,000,000 per month. As men are the breadwinner of a family, they will not opt for this career. For instance, the proportion of high-school male teachers accounts for only 15percent.

Head of Lao Cai Division of Personnel and Organization Tran Quang Vuong stated that there was an abnormal increase on the number of teachers asking for resignation in Lao Cai. The quantity of high school teachers doing this action in 2017 has been 26, which is 4 times as many as that in 2015. Among them are those in the city; new to the job as well as those with 10 years’ experience.

Mr. Vuong also shared that after having a new job, the salary of the mentioned-above people was 4-5 times as much as their old one. Therefore, MoET’s suggestion to assign the highest level in the salary scales of public servants to teachers reached absolute consensus.

In addition, some delegates recommended that educational managers should be added into the list of salary increase. In fact, many of these leaders were formerly teachers; thus, without clear guidelines from the amendment, they would lose their experience advantage or salary rise.

With respect to providing free education for junior high students in state schools, the majority agreed as well since the literacy program is reaching junior high level and laws must support it.

Resolution No.29 of the Central Committee Vietnamese Communist Party on fundamental and comprehensive innovation in education indicated ‘mandatory education for 9 years after 2020’; hence, the government should completely subsidize the fee. It is also noticeable that some delegates mentioned about the subsidy for students in private schools.

They explained that this mandatory education applies to all primary pupils now and junior high ones in the near future, but those in private educational institutes have not received this benefit yet, which is not fair. It would be more logical to apply free education to all learners of the two stages, with detailed guidelines on the amount of fee subsidized for state and private schools. This would create fairness as well as healthy competitive environments in the society.

Voices also rose in the meeting about free education for 5-year-old children going to kindergartens since this level has been listed in the literacy program. Leaders of the Departments of Education and Training of Hai Phong, Thanh Hoa, Hanoi, Ha Nam suggested that nursery schools should welcome toddlers of 6 months old instead of 3 months old like they do at the moment to better suit the reality.

Despite the current regulation of accepting 3-month-old toddlers, neither do parents send their children to school at that age nor do schools actually welcome preschoolers under 1 year old due to the lack of facilities and teaching staff. The fact that the Social Insurance Law increases maternity leave from 4 months to 6 months also adds to this need of change.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) held a meeting in the afternoon of the same day to ask for suggestions on the bill to amend and supplement a number of articles of the Law for Higher Education. In this meeting, the majority of delegates reached a consensus on the necessity of a change. Most of them highly appreciated this change./.

SGGP News