Ministry of Home Affairs talks about proposal to abolish teacher professional title certificate

Talking with Mr. Nguyen Tu Long - Deputy Head of the Department of Civil Servants and Public Employees (Ministry of Home Affairs) regarding the requirement of professional title certificates in the appointment and ranking of teachers (according to Circulars 01, 02, 03, 04 of the Ministry of Education and Training).

Building standards is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Training.

As a consultant on civil servant management, where do you think the requirement for professional title certificates in teacher ranking comes from?

It must be affirmed that to do any job there must be its own standards.Law on Civil ServantsAs well as in the Decrees (from the previous Decree 29 to the newly revised Decree 115 in 2020), it is stipulated that for each professional title of civil servants, there must be standards for the professional title and the responsibility of the Ministry of Home Affairs, as well as specialized ministries in developing standards.job titlefor the staff under their management.

Mr. Nguyen Tu Long - Deputy Head of Department of Civil Servants and Public Employees (Ministry of Home Affairs).

Regarding the teaching staff, the development of standards for each level of general education is the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and Training. This is stipulated in the Law and is also clearly stated in the previous Decree 29 and the newly issued Decree 115 in 2020 on recruitment, use and management of civil servants.

Based on the standards of each professional title, specialized ministries must organize training courses for teachers to meet those standards and those who complete the training course will be granted a professional title certificate.

Could you please elaborate, does the Law on Civil Servants require professional title certificates in ranking teachers?

The law stipulates that all professional titles must have standards and each professional title level must also have different standards.

For example, they are both teachers but high school teachers are different from middle school teachers, kindergarten teachers...

For the same secondary school teacher, there are different levels of titles that represent the qualifications corresponding to different job positions as I mentioned above. And each level of professional title also has different standards. People holding higher levels of professional titles are required to perform more complex tasks, with higher requirements than those of lower levels.

English class of Hung Dung Secondary School students. Photo: MH

That's about the standards of each title and each title level. But how to achieve these standards is another story.

For example, the training standard is to graduate from a pedagogical university, which is a rigid standard, meaning that to teach, one must graduate from a pedagogical university or higher.

As for those who do not graduate from university of education but want to teach, they must take a training course on pedagogical skills to be able to teach, which is a training certificate.

Thus, those who have graduated from teacher training do not have to take this class anymore because they have already studied it in school.

To drop or not to drop: The Ministry of Education and Training needs to have a stance

So what is the difference between the training certificate you mentioned and the professional title certificate and in your opinion, is the professional title certificate necessary in ranking teachers?

Junior high school teacher is a professional title. In the professional title of junior high school teacher, there are different levels of titles such as junior high school teacher level I, level II and level III.

Professional title certificates are built based on the standards of each professional title level. The standards must be based on the tasks and requirements of the job position and demonstrate the capacity and qualifications corresponding to the job position.

For example, a new teacher who has just graduated can start teaching immediately if he meets the standards, but he cannot be appointed to the position of Grade II or Grade I teacher because he does not have enough experience and other necessary skills like teachers who have been teaching for 5 or 7 years.

Mr. Nguyen Hong Hai - Principal of Quang Trung Secondary School said that if the epidemic in Nghe An becomes complicated and schools have to close, the school has prepared all plans to be able to teach online in the most effective way. Photo courtesy of Duc Anh

Some professions also require meeting minimum work experience standards, reaching a certain level or higher, to be able to hold management positions (department head, vice principal, principal), because if you do not have professional experience, you cannot manage.

Therefore, the professional title certificate reflects the qualifications, capacity and experience of civil servants in general and teachers in particular. As for the training certificate, as I said above, it can be a type of additional certificate serving professional activities.

We should not think that “all certificates are bad”. If the certificate serves the right requirements of state management, meets the right requirements of civil servants from improving the quality of their professional activities, then “the certificate is not guilty at all”, there is no need to discard it.

According to current regulations, depending on the level, teachers must have corresponding professional certificates. Photo courtesy of MH

But the problem with the types of certificates now, I understand, is that there are too many and overlapping contents, which has recently caused frustration among the teaching staff. Therefore, what is necessary now is not to abolish or not to abolish a certain type of certificate, but to review all the requirements for the mandatory conditions of each type of certificate and especially the content and program of the certificates to see if they come from the correct requirements of the standards and job positions or not to avoid waste and expense for society.

To do this, the fundamental thing is that the state management agency must set out regulations on standards for each professional title. In each professional title, what are the standards for each professional title level, from which to build a training system according to regulations.

Many opinions suggest removing professional title certificates for teachers. What do you think about this?

The Ministry of Interior cannot confirm whether to abolish this certificate or not. This must be widely consulted with those directly affected.

Ministry of Education and TrainingAs a specialized state management agency, the ministry must review and have an opinion on whether to abolish it or not, whether this certificate is necessary or not, and what is the reason for abolishing or keeping it.

If the problem is to be eliminated, it is also necessary to clearly define the management method./.

According to a leader of the Ministry of Education and Training, the regulation that teachers must have a training certificate according to professional title standards (TCCDNN) in Joint Circulars No. 20, 21, 22, 23/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV (formerly) and Circulars No. 01, 02, 03, 04/2021/TT-BGDĐT (replacing Joint Circulars No. 20, 21, 22, 23/2015/TTLT-BGDĐT-BNV) is implemented according to the provisions of the Law on Civil Servants 2010 and Decree No. 101 of the Government.

This person also said that the Education sector has also made efforts to propose replacing these certificates with specialized certificates, but this is a regulation of the Law on Civil Servants and Decree No. 101, so it cannot be done otherwise.

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