'There needs to be a breakthrough in salary policy for teachers'

Experts, teachers, and managers all agree that there needs to be a policy to improve teachers' income.

Salary policy was a major issue discussed in the discussion "Educational innovation - Viewed from the teacher's perspective" organized by the People's Representative newspaper on the morning of November 11.

Taking the story of the 1.3 million VND/month pension of preschool teacher Truong Thi Lan in Ha Tinh, the story of a university graduate who just started teaching and earned only about 3 million VND/month, Associate Professor, Dr. Hoang Van Cuong - Vice Principal of the National Economics University, National Assembly delegate - concluded that "that means our policies are problematic". Therefore, he believes that the first thing that needs to be changed is the salary policy.

“Currently, our salary policy still has many shortcomings. First, salaries are still very low. In order for teachers to feel secure in teaching, salaries do not need to be too high, but they must be enough for them to support themselves and their families. And that way, people will not think about other things anymore.

Second, salaries still do not encourage young, capable teachers with social connections. Although they were highly regarded by the school as students, because they are new to the profession, their salaries are very low. They do not have the conditions to rise to a position worthy of their dedication.

Delegates attending the workshop.

Prof. Dr. Dinh Quang Bao - former Principal of Hanoi National University of Education - said that there needs to be a breakthrough in improving the material life of teachers. He proposed that in the context of poor financial resources, instead of investing heavily in facilities, we should cut down and reserve financial resources for investment, prioritizing the treatment regime for teachers first.

In addition, according to Professor Bao, it is necessary to re-plan the management of the teaching staff. This is a special human resource, which must be managed and planned specifically. "We must have a plan to proactively ensure a quality teaching workforce, without surplus. If we do these things well, we will attract talented people to participate in the education sector."

The newspaper also noted that it is necessary to select the best people to be teachers. “In developed countries, they select 10-15% of the best people to be teachers,” he said.

Regarding the issue of teachers' income, Dr. Hoang Duc Minh - Director of the Department of Teachers and Management Staff, Ministry of Education and Training, said that the Ministry has been very persistent, but there are things that the education sector cannot decide on its own, as Minister Phung Xuan Nha once said at many meetings and forums, including the National Assembly Session, that "the two issues of money and people are not decided by the education sector itself, only participating in proposals and a very small part of micro-level regulation.

But quality is responsible to society." These are also common difficulties and especially difficulties for managers.

Mr. Minh also said that recently, the Central Steering Committee on reforming salary policies, social insurance and preferential treatment for people with revolutionary contributions is also completing the evaluation. The Ministry of Education and Training has also made proposals to promote salary and income reform policies for teachers.

"In the process of amending the Law on Education, the education sector is also urgently working with ministries and branches to implement, including proposing to include salary reform policies in the Draft. In the future, if there are conditions to build the Law on Teachers, these things will be more coherent and methodical," said Mr. Minh.

On the side of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture, Education, Youth, Adolescents and Children, Ms. Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa, Standing Member, said that this year the Committee has also monitored the implementation of teacher policies.

“In the monitoring report on the regime and policies for teachers, the issue we want to raise here is that it is time to conduct a comprehensive review of all existing policy documents, what is outdated must be removed and replaced, what does not exist must be newly built, how to set up regulations on mechanisms and policies that are truly specific to the teaching profession”.

Ms. Mai Hoa said that the Committee has proposed to amend the Law on Education and the Law on Higher Education in 2018. Currently, the Committee is coordinating with the Ministry of Education and Training to select the most urgent issues to amend this time, including the issue of teacher policy.

“We want to include the Law on Teachers in the law-making program in 2019, or later in 2020. There must be a separate law for teachers so that all regulations on the specific nature of the teaching profession and policy requirements for the teaching profession must be set forth and resolved.”

According to VNN