More than 1,700 contract preschool teachers anxiously wait for support policies

Contract teachers' concerns

Teacher Nguyen Thi Hoa, a teacher at Bac Thanh Kindergarten, was originally a junior high school teacher, majoring in Geography and Fine Arts. However, although she graduated in 2009 and had more than 5 years of teaching experience at Bac Thanh Junior High School, she had no opportunity to be on the payroll, so from November 2016 she transferred to teach preschool as a contract teacher 09 (Joint Circular No. 09/2013/TTLT-BGDĐT-BTC-BNV).

Physical education class for preschool students in Vinh city. Photo: MH

Since transferring, she has completed her intermediate degree as required and then completed her university program to meet the job requirements. After more than 6 years of working, although the professional work of a junior high school teacher and a preschool teacher has many differences, she still tries to complete her tasks and thought she would stick with it for a long time. However, from the beginning of 2022 until now, when she received information that contract teachers in category 09 (and 06) will no longer receive salaries from the state budget, she is really worried.

Sharing about this, she said: In the past time, although the state budget has stopped, the school has still created conditions for us to pay salaries, but from the beginning of summer until now, there has been no salary. However, salary is only a part, what we are worried about is the future of contract preschool teachers. Because in theory, we are entitled to the same benefits as teachers on the payroll, but in reality, this is not the case. We also do not know where our future will be.

In the whole Yen Thanh district, there are more than 200 preschool teachers under contract 06 and 09. Of which, a large number are teachers from junior high school to preschool level. Since the beginning of the year, after receiving information about the policy for teachers signed under Decree 06/2018/ND-CP, which will expire in December 2021 and temporarily not be allocated budget to pay salaries, these teachers are "restless". In fact, these teachers have also written many times to competent authorities to ask about this issue but have not received any answers.

Many preschool teachers in Yen Thanh district are worried about the policies. Photo: My Ha.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Tinh - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Yen Thanh district also said: In order for teachers to feel secure in their work, Yen Thanh district has recently directed schools to use their regular revenue and expenditure sources to pay teachers' salaries in the short term. We also affirm that this is only a temporary solution, and in the long term, teachers want a clear mechanism or more staff to recruit these teachers to ensure their rights.

Vinh City currently has more than 100 preschool teachers under contract 06,09 and some of them have worked for over 6 years.

Mr. Le Truong Son - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh City also said: Although we try to ensure teachers' salaries from the school's tuition fees, in general, teachers want to soon stabilize their regimes according to current regulations. This is also a legitimate right because they are all capable, professional and recruited and signed contracts according to regulations.

Need to have support policy mechanism soon

The issue of policies for contract teachers under categories 06 and 09 has been mentioned by the Nghe An Education Department and difficulties have been predicted after Decree 06 expires. The Department has also proposed this idea to the Ministry of Education and Training but there is still no answer.

Since the beginning of 2022, in order to promptly resolve difficulties for schools, Nghe An Department of Finance has issued Document No. 527/STC - HX on temporary guidance on salary and benefits payment for preschool teachers who have labor contracts according to Decree No. 06/2018/ND-CP.

Based on the list review, units can use the 2022 education career budget that has been assigned to pay for the remaining contract workers in the quota. In the case of the remaining contract preschool teachers (in addition to the quota assigned to receive salaries from the budget), districts, cities and towns direct preschools to prioritize using the unit's career revenue to pay.

In 2022, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, organizing preschool education faced many difficulties, and many schools have not collected tuition fees. Photo: My Ha

Currently, according to the Department of Education and Training, Nghe An province has more than 1,700 preschool teachers in categories 06 and 09. Recently, after receiving instructions from the Department of Finance, localities have also found ways to "manage" to pay teachers' salaries. However, as of May 10, 2022, according to the Department of Education and Training, only 6 units have paid teachers' salaries from the budget. The rest are assigned to preschools to pay teachers' salaries from career revenue and regular expenditure sources allocated in 2022.

In fact, it also shows that due to lack of funds, some units only pay in advance with the amount of 2-3 million/month, paying less than 4 months or not paying at all.

Since the beginning of the year, out of more than 1,777 contract preschool teachers, only one district has recruited all of them into the payroll since February 2022, which is Quy Hop. The remaining districts such as Ky Son have recruited 63/78 people, Que Phong (42/44 people), Quy Chau (45/48 people), Tuong Duong 42/43 people. Districts such as Con Cuong, Tan Ky, Dien Chau are in the recruitment process. The remaining districts do not have recruitment targets.

Many school leaders also said that although there are guidelines, the only source of revenue for preschool education is tuition fees (which have long been used to reform salaries and regular expenses) with a small amount of funding. Meanwhile, tuition fees at educational institutions are not enough to cover the costs of contract teachers, and the number of contract teachers at each unit is uneven. Since the beginning of the year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, some districts have only organized admission for students from April 2022 or have not organized continuous teaching, so they have not collected tuition fees.

The entire Nghe An province is lacking more than 5,000 preschool teachers. Photo: My Ha

The lack of a mechanism to resolve the regime for contract preschool teachers in many localities across the province also poses many difficulties for the preschool sector, especially when the shortage of preschool teachers in the whole province is currently serious with more than 5,300 teachers. In the past, there have been a number of unsafe incidents of children in preschools in the province due to the lack of teachers.

With the above shortcomings, in order to gradually resolve difficulties for preschool education in general, preschool teachers under the above-mentioned 06,09 contracts, the Department of Education and Training has submitted a document to develop a Resolution regulating support policies for preschool teachers who have signed labor contracts according to Decree No. 06/2018/ND-CP and Joint Circular No. 09/2013/TTLT - BGDĐT - BTC - BNV. This is a necessary solution at the present time to resolve difficulties for localities and schools when there is no replacement document from the state. Thereby, it also creates a legal basis for educational institutions to arrange funding sources and have a basis to pay salaries to preschool teachers who have signed labor contracts.

According to the draft Resolution, the estimated budget for 2022 to pay salaries for 1,777 preschool teachers in 2022 is 127,297 billion VND. The budget for 2023 will be 94,267 billion VND because it is expected that from now until the end of 2022, 570 civil servants will be recruited.

The industry also expects that after 2022, the need for funding will gradually decrease and support will end by the end of 2025 because this team of teachers will be recruited into civil servants.