- Vietnam’s Ministry of Education proposes raising teacher allowances up to 80 percent to address pay gaps and workforce retention
- Preschool, pre-university teachers, and school support staff to benefit from revised draft decree on occupational allowances
- Policy aims to fix income disparities, boost teacher morale, and stabilize the education workforce across regions
The Ministry of Education and Training has recommended raising professional allowances for teachers, with the rates increasing up to 80 percent. The idea was raised under the ministry's just-released draft decree on preferential occupational allowances for public education officials and employees.
The revised allowance levels are stipulated in the draft decree for different types of educators. For preschool teachers, allowances would rise from 35 percent to 45 percent in good areas and to 80 percent in areas with especially challenging socio-economic conditions, to be closer to their role complexity and workload pressure.
For pre-university preparatory school teachers, allowances would go up from 50 percent to 70 percent, so that they would be on the same level as the allowance received by ethnic boarding school teachers, to be fair for similar positions.
For school support staff, for the very first time, support staff like librarians and clerical personnel would qualify for a 15 percent allowance. Shared specialist positions like accountants and health staff would get 20 percent, and positions with specialist expertise would get 25 percent, acknowledging their critical contributions to school functions.
The outline also contains specific regulations on the award of allowance for situations like overlapping entitlements (only where the highest available rate is awarded), administrative classifications changes, assignments across a number of education levels or school locations, and non-teaching staff participation in teaching at pedagogical schools.
The ministry added that based on present rules, the policy of allowances still has a number of deficiencies. Most importantly, overall income for preschool educators fails to compensate for the hard work required of their profession.
They have the responsibility of caring for and educating children who are three months to six years old, which demands extreme concentration to guarantee safety and interest. Their everyday workday lasts for 9-10 hours.
Yet their salaries are the lowest of all education groups. Their beginning salary coefficient is 2.10 with an allowance equal to 35% of their base pay, so total monthly income is approximately VND6.63 million.
The gap has led to high turnover, with 1,600 preschool teachers having quit the teaching profession between August 2023 and April 2024 and representing 22 percent of total teacher resignations over the period.
The existing allowance for teachers in pre-university preparatory schools is also regarded as discriminatory relative to ethnic boarding schools despite both positions entailing similar responsibilities like handling boarding students and advocating the preservation of ethnic cultural heritage.
Although the two groups are under the same scales of remuneration in accordance with professional ranks, their allowances are dissimilar, 50 percent as opposed to 70 percent respectively.
Besides, the ministry further added that school employees have so far been omitted from receiving any occupational allowances. The majority of them are already receiving the lowest salary scales among public workers.
"The problems have undermined motivation and professional retention, degrading the quality and stability of the education workforce", the ministry added.
The proposed decree not only has the purpose of correcting deficiencies in existing policies but also evidences the Party and State's clear determination to step up support for teachers and school administrators, it said.
Its enforcement would create a uniform and equitable policy framework for local governments to adhere to, leading to enhanced educational quality, personnel retention and the sustainable growth of Vietnam's education sector.
According to the Government's Decree No. 73/2024, the base monthly salary this year will be locked at VND2.34 million. Salaries of teachers, as those of civil servants, are computed by multiplying the base salary with the corresponding salary coefficient.
The highest teacher salary is estimated to hit almost VND16 million per month, while the lowest will be around VND4.9 million. These rates do not take into account any extra allowances or supplements.
