Nghe An solves the problem of teachers and contract employees in schools

Teachers are excited.

In mid-February 2025, teacher Mai Duy Tan (34 years old, Hai Hoa Secondary School, Vinh City), could not hide his joy after receiving his January salary after a full month of waiting. “I received my January and February salaries at the same time. The amount of money has not changed compared to before. After a month of confusion and anxiety, now it feels like everything has been cleared up and I can work with peace of mind,” teacher Tan said with a smile.

Mr. Tan is one of the teachers and school staff whose salaries were stopped right before the Lunar New Year.Nghe An Newspaper on February 8, 2025 had an article reflecting.Not only Mr. Tan, the remaining teachers and staff have also continued to receive their salaries after 1 month of suspension. These are all people who were signed indefinite contracts by the People's Committee of Cua Lo town (old) to work at schools in the area many years ago. Among them, many are over 50 years old.

“Before that, everyone was very worried. Now that the State Treasury has transferred money to continue paying teachers’ salaries, everyone is excited. However, in the long term, we also hope that the Vinh City People’s Committee will create favorable conditions for recruitment, because these are all necessary positions,” said Mr. Nguyen Van Son, Principal of Nghi Huong Secondary School.

Immediately after Nghe An Newspaper reported, on February 11, Vinh City People's Committee sent a document to Nghe An State Treasury. In this document, Vinh City People's Committee said that on December 31, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3720/QD-UBND on assigning staff and contracts to perform professional and technical work in public service units that have not yet ensured regular expenditures and organized the Association in 2025.

Of which, the public service units of Vinh city and the old Cua Lo town were assigned 1,815 positions of civil servants receiving salaries from the budget, 292 positions of civil servants receiving salaries from revenue sources, 65 contracts to perform professional work under 12 months (60 people receiving salaries from the City budget and 05 people receiving salaries from revenue sources) according to Decree No. 11/2022/ND-CP dated December 30, 2022 of the Government.

Also according to the Vinh City People's Committee, the locality currently has 206 professional and technical labor contracts at public service units and schools under the City (public service units have 117 people; schools have 89 people). These people have worked for many years at the units. Specifically, the person with the least experience has worked for 12 years and the person with the most experience has worked for 32 years. Of which, 117 labor contracts are beyond the number assigned according to Decision No. 3720/QD-UBND of the Provincial People's Committee. In 2025, the City People's Committee reported and submitted to the Vinh City People's Council for approval of the state budget revenue and expenditure estimates for public service units under the city based on the aggregated expenditure estimates of public service units under Vinh City (old) - and Cua Lo Town (old). In particular, the City People's Committee has calculated to support sufficient funds to pay salaries and salary contributions in 2025 for 206 labor contracts according to Decree No. 11/2022/ND-CP.

Pursuant to the official dispatch dated September 27, 2024 of the People's Committee of Nghe An province on resolving difficulties and obstacles in implementing professional and technical contracts under Decree No. 111/2022/ND-CP; Official dispatch dated February 5, 2025 of the Department of Home Affairs of Nghe An province on paying salaries for labor contracts under Decree No. 111/2022/ND-CP of the Government. To ensure stable operations for units and benefits for employees, the People's Committee of Vinh city requests the State Treasury of Nghe An to pay salaries for professional and technical contracts included in the staffing expenditures assigned to public service units. Allow units to pay salaries only for 117 labor contracts outside the number assigned by the Provincial People's Committee. At the same time, use the city budget to pay salaries, allowances and salary-based contributions for 178 labor contracts at the units.

“Thus, in the short term, teachers and contract employees at schools will continue to be paid salaries from the city’s budget. In the long term, the city will also prioritize recruiting them into the payroll for stability,” said a leader of the Vinh City Department of Internal Affairs.

Continue to solve the problem of teachers and contract school staff

According to statistics from the Department of Education and Training, by early 2025, the whole province had only 265 teachers and contract employees in schools. These were all labor contracts signed by the People's Committees of districts, cities and towns many years ago. Of which, Vinh City accounted for the largest number with 98 cases, including 52 cases in schools signed by the People's Committee of the old Cua Lo town. Many localities such as Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Thai Hoa town, Quy Chau, Que Phong, Tuong Duong... no longer had teachers and contract employees in schools.

“This is a very positive number, because just a few years ago, the whole province had more than 3,000 contract teachers. But recently, the Provincial People's Committee has paid attention to directing and localities have basically recruited long-term contract teachers into the payroll so that they can work with peace of mind. Currently, most of the contracts are employees, there are very few teachers, except for schools in the old Cua Lo town. As for schools in Vinh City before the merger, there were 46 contracts but mainly school health workers, according to the structure, these employees are not on the payroll", said a representative of the Department of Organization and Personnel - Department of Education and Training.

Before merging into Vinh city, Cua Lo town was considered one of the few localities that implemented policies well for contract teachers, ensuring the rights of permanent teachers. However, recruiting these teachers has been difficult because for many years, Cua Lo has not had a permanent staff for secondary school teachers, with a local surplus and shortage. Currently, many contract teachers recruited by the town have worked for over 20 years, have made many contributions to the industry, and many are excellent teachers and core teachers. Therefore, after the salary payment was stopped, many teachers were disappointed.

The story of teachers in Cua Lo town (old) whose salaries were stopped is similar to the case of dozens of teachers and employees in Quynh Luu district a year ago. These people also had their salaries stopped right before Tet. After Nghe An Newspaper published an article reflecting, these teachers and employees continued to receive their salaries. By early December 2024, most of them had been recruited into the payroll. To date, the entire Quynh Luu district has only 2 employees in schools on contract.

With many preferential policies, joy has come to teachers at the beginning of the year. This shows both concern and humanity and is also a source of encouragement for teachers to continue to strive and stick with the profession. At the same time, it solves the "deadlock" problem in handling teachers, staff, and contracts that have been pending for many years in localities.