Draft Law on Teachers: Shifting focus from management to human resource management

Minister Nguyen Kim Son spoke at the workshop.

On the afternoon of June 2, the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education and the Ministry of Education and Training held a workshop to collect expert opinions on state management of teachers in the draft Law on Teachers.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee for Cultureand Education Nguyen Dac Vinh; Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son chaired the workshop. Also attending were representatives of the Central Propaganda Department, leaders of the National Assembly's Committees, leaders of ministries/sectors/localities; National Assembly deputies, experts, and distinguished guests attending the workshop.

Creating a legal environment to develop the teaching staff
Speaking at the workshop, Minister Nguyen Kim Son emphasized: teachers play a very important role, deciding the quality of education. Reality has proven that the development of education depends on the development of the teaching staff. The results of educational innovation depend on the innovation of each teacher.

Thus, the quality of an education depends on a very important part, which is the quality of the teaching staff. The quality of teachers depends on many factors. In addition to individual efforts, the spirit of continuous learning of each teacher, policies, working environment, methods of selecting, recruiting and developing teachers play an important role.

Based on that awareness, over the past long time, the Ministry of Education and Training has persistently prepared theoretical and practical foundations to propose to the Party, State, and National Assembly to allow the construction of a separate Law regulating teachers.

By April 2024, the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed to submit to the National Assembly the drafting of the Law on Teachers to be included in the 2024 Law-making Program of the 15th National Assembly. This is good news, meeting the expectations of 1.6 million teachers working in educational institutions across the country.

Thoroughly implementing the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training and the Drafting Committee of the Law on Teachers determined that the consistent ideology in the process of drafting the Law is to create a foundation and a complete and favorable legal environment to develop the teaching staff in both quantity and quality.

“The important spirit of this law is to develop the teaching force,” the Minister emphasized.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son chaired the workshop.

Adjusting viewpoints and thinking in state management of teachers
State management of teachers is an important and consistent content in the process of developing the teaching staff, from the time they first enter the profession, develop their career until they retire.

Sharing this, the Minister said that state management of teachers needs a suitable specialized legal framework; in which teachers, both public and non-public, can see themselves, their profession, their mission, their development path, only then can they bring success to learners and meet society's expectations.

This time, the Law on Teachers was unanimously included by the National Assembly Standing Committee in the Law-making Program of the 15th National Assembly (expected to be passed in the upcoming November session, and if approved, will be passed in the first session of next year). This is an opportunity for us to adjust our viewpoints and thinking in state management of teachers.

The Minister emphasized: The Law on Teachers needs to demonstrate innovation and institutional improvement in state management of teachers, shifting the focus from personnel management to human resource management.

The fundamental difference between human resource management and current personnel management is that teachers are seen as a key resource contributing to the success of education.

This resource includes professionals in the teaching profession, trained, recruited, used and treated according to a system of regulations implemented by the Education sector, to ensure the connection between the quantity, quality and structure of the teaching staff with the goals and development requirements of education.

Shifting the state management mindset on teachers to a human resource management model is an urgent requirement, especially in the current period when education is facing fundamental and comprehensive innovation requirements.

The Law on Teachers will be a consistent, effective and efficient legal framework for creating and developing the teaching staff. In particular, the subject of state management of teachers is emphasized on the responsibility of the Education sector and is specifically decentralized from the Ministry to the Department, Division and educational institutions.

Increase professional and quality factors in teacher training and recruitment
The direction of the Law's construction will increase professional factors and focus on quality in both teacher training and recruitment.

The Minister emphasized the professional and quality factors in teacher management, because this factor will ensure innovation in state management in both the public and private sectors.

The new law will also guide unified and smooth management throughout the system with clear decentralization but ensure recruitment, mobilization, exchange, and use in a smooth and unified manner nationwide.

“We hope that with state management built on professional and quality factors like this, it will lead to tighter and more substantial management, and teachers will feel more comfortable and free in their professional activities and have more conditions to develop themselves and contribute to the profession.”

With such a view, according to the Minister, the Law on Teachers does not reduce the role of state management of teachers of Ministries, Branches and authorities at all levels as stipulated in legal documents and will not conflict with other Laws and legal documents.

The Law on Teachers mentions and clarifies the role and authority of the education sector in state management of teachers for the purpose of creation and development.

Therefore, at the workshop, the Minister suggested and hoped that experts, National Assembly deputies, and delegates attending the workshop today would express opinions from different perspectives to help the Drafting Committee absorb and thoroughly complete the draft.

Source: Education and Training

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