Need to consider carefully

MORE SURPRISED THAN HAPPY

A teacher working in Mu Cang Chai District ( Yen Bai ) said she received this news with more surprise than joy. Teachers' lives are still difficult, but teachers' children have long been cared for and studied in good conditions compared to the general level. "We work in difficult areas and see that the people who need the most support in terms of tuition policies and education encouragement are the children of farmers and ethnic minorities... otherwise they will drop out of school."

Teachers of Minh Chuan Secondary School (Yen Bai) on the day they returned to school to teach students after the floods caused by Typhoon Yagi . Many teachers believe that the people who need the most support in terms of tuition policies and education encouragement are children of farmers and ethnic minorities.

PHOTO: PROVIDED BY THE SCHOOL

The state budget must provide an additional 9,212.1 billion VND.

In the draft Law on Teachers published before October 8, there is no policy of exempting tuition fees for teachers' children. According to calculations by the Ministry of Education and Training, if a tuition exemption policy (from kindergarten to university) for teachers' and lecturers' children is added, the state budget will have to allocate an additional VND9,212.1 billion annually.

A teacher in Ho Chi Minh City also shared publicly on social media: "I am a teacher, and none of my colleagues in the country have had to drop out of school because their parents are poor, but many students have had to drop out of school because of poverty. Thank you to the Ministry for your concern, but I would like to decline, let teachers' children be as normal as children in other professions."

"Even though I am a teacher with 39 years of experience, I really don't understand why the drafting committee made this proposal. Free tuition for teachers' children! Where is the fairness? Children of farmers, workers... have it much harder than teachers' children!", is the opinion of a reader named NKM commenting under Thanh Nien Newspaper's post about this proposal.

What teachers care about is not getting their children's tuition free.

Ms. VTH, a secondary school literature teacher in Bac Giang City (Bac Giang), also shared with reporters: "I understand that the Ministry of Education and Training wants to pay special attention to teachers so that teachers can feel secure in their dedication to their profession. However, because of this proposal, in the past few days, we teachers have received many negative comments such as "privileges, special benefits", or "teachers receive too many incentives", some even make fun of the teaching profession, comparing it with other professions, such as: "why not exempt teachers' children from studying so they don't have to pay tuition, and let their parents teach them at home"...

According to this teacher, she and her colleagues have never proposed to reduce tuition fees for their children because public school tuition fees are not a big problem. What they need is a living wage, and special allowances for teachers such as seniority allowances will not be abolished when implementing the new salary policy. Teachers also need to reduce unnecessary pressure from competitions, movements that are formal in nature, and bookkeeping systems...

A principal of a private school in Hanoi said that for a long time, his school has had a policy of exempting 50% of tuition fees for children of staff, teachers and employees of the school, regardless of their position, and this contributes to encouraging them to stick with and contribute to the school. Of course, the tuition fees of private schools are quite high compared to public schools, so the tuition exemption is also very meaningful to workers, helping them feel the practical care.

FAIRNESS AND FEASIBILITY NEED TO BE CONSIDERED

Sharing with Thanh Nien reporter, Professor Dao Trong Thi, former Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education, said that in some aspects, the proposal of the Ministry of Education and Training must be evaluated as an effort to encourage and motivate teachers. That means any additional policy shows that teachers and the teaching profession are respected.

However, Professor Dao Trong Thi also said that applying it on a national scale with such a large budget needs to be calculated to see if it is feasible and receives consensus.

As someone who strongly defended the highest salary for teachers when drafting the 2019 Education Law, Professor Thi said that the important thing is that teachers' salaries are enough to live on so that they can feel secure in their profession. However, the highest salary in the salary scale system is not actually much higher than other professions if the occupational allowance policy is no longer in place. The important thing is to keep the seniority allowance for teachers as it has been for a long time because this allowance is also included in the social insurance contribution level and thanks to that, teachers will receive a higher salary when they retire.

Regarding the issue of tuition fees, Professor Dao Trong Thi also said that solving it by profession would be very difficult and must follow a general policy, which is to move towards universal education, which requires free tuition for all people.

It is important that teachers' salaries are enough to live on so they can feel secure in their profession.

PHOTO: DAO NGOC THACH

Sharing the same view, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Hai, Principal of Phan Chu Trinh Secondary School (Hanoi), supports this proposal as an encouragement and motivation for teachers, but also needs to have careful research and consideration on how to implement it reasonably, not causing budget imbalance and ensuring social justice.

Sharing with the press, Mr. Pham Van Hoa, National Assembly delegate of Dong Thap province, expressed his disagreement with the proposal to exempt tuition fees for biological and legally adopted children of teachers currently working. According to delegate Pham Van Hoa, teachers' salaries are proposed to be the highest in the administrative salary scale system. Teachers also receive more professional allowances than other civil servants. If they teach far away, teachers can also stay in official houses. According to delegate Hoa, increasing salaries, even very high increases for teachers is right, but nothing should be free, including tuition fees for teachers' children.

"We cannot turn one injustice into another. In a society, every profession deserves equal respect and priority," said delegate Hoa, adding that the proposal by the drafting agency would be easily judged by public opinion as having "group interests" for its own profession.

Associate Professor Nguyen Duc Loc, Director of the Institute for Social Life Research, stated his opinion: In terms of professional aspects, teaching is a relatively special profession, and society does not oppose specific policies for teachers. However, when building and promulgating laws, it is necessary to have a comprehensive view, feasibility, a longer-term vision, and sustainability, avoiding the inclusion of too many small, temporary policies. "For example, looking at the whole picture, being a teacher is not too difficult compared to other professions. Avoid letting society have a distorted view of teaching and compare this profession with that profession," said Mr. Loc.

Associate Professor Loc also said that increasing welfare benefits for teachers is necessary, but should be included in salaries and allowances specific to the profession. "When making laws, we should consider universality, fairness, and diversity in approach," Mr. Loc stated his opinion.

Reasons not to apply

Mr. Ha Dinh Quan, an official working in Duc Trong District (Lam Dong), sent his opinion to Thanh Nien Newspaper, saying that this proposal should not be applied, for the following reasons: Firstly, teachers' salaries have now increased. In addition, they can receive one or several allowances: seniority allowance, regional allowance, job incentives, position allowance, seniority allowance beyond the framework... That does not include income from other sources such as extra teaching. Thus, teachers' income compared to the average income of workers in other professions is not low. On the other hand, teachers' income is highly stable and increases over time.

Second, current tuition fees are not a barrier to access to education for teachers' children. Third, the implementation of this policy may cause serious problems such as: inequality, unfairness between workers in different professions, negative psychology of workers in society... Fourth, the cost of implementing this proposal is quite high. In the current context, this is not an important goal and should be prioritized.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/de-xuat-mien-hoc-phi-cho-con-nha-giao-can-can-nhac-ky-luong-185241009221743053.htm