Are the principal and vice principal civil servants or public employees?

Principals and vice principals are members of the Board of Directors, responsible for leading and managing school activities, and are assigned and appointed by superiors. So are principals and vice principals civil servants or public employees?

Regulations on classification of civil servants and public employees

Clause 2, Article 4 of the amended Law on Cadres and Civil Servants stipulates that civil servants are Vietnamese citizens who are recruited and appointed to ranks, positions, and titles corresponding to job positions in state agencies.

Including: Communist Party of Vietnam , State, political-social organizations at central, provincial and district levels; agencies and units of the People's Army that are not officers, professional soldiers, or defense workers; agencies and units of the People's Police that are not officers, non-commissioned officers serving under the professional regime, or police workers, on the payroll and receiving salaries from the state budget.

Are the principals and vice principals of public schools civil servants or public employees? (Illustration photo)

Along with that, Article 2 of the amended Law on Public Employees stipulates that public employees are Vietnamese citizens recruited according to job positions and working at public service units under the employment contract regime.

At the same time, Article 3 of Decree 115/2020 stipulates that a management officer is a person appointed to a management position for a limited period of time, responsible for operating and organizing the implementation of one or several tasks in a public service unit and receiving a management position allowance.

A civil servant who does not hold a management position is a person who only performs professional duties according to his/her job title in a public service unit.

Based on the above regulations, we can see that the principal and vice principal are management officials, not civil servants.

Teaching hours of principals and vice principals

Article 8 of Circular 05/2025 stipulates that, in addition to leadership and management tasks, principals and vice principals of general schools must teach a number of lessons in theeducational program to grasp the content, program objectives and students' learning situation in order to improve the effectiveness of leadership and management work.

The standard teaching period in a school year is determined as follows: Standard teaching period = Average standard teaching period in a week x Number of teaching weeks.

The average teaching hours per week for the principal is 2 hours and for the vice principal is 4 hours. The principal and vice principal are not allowed to convert the teaching hours reduction regime to concurrent positions.

Along with that, the working time in a year of principals, vice principals, and teachers of 42-week general schools:

• The number of weeks for teaching the contents of the general education program is 37 weeks (including 35 weeks of actual teaching and 2 weeks of reserve);
• Number of weeks of study and advanced training is 3 weeks;
• The number of weeks to prepare for the new school year and summarize the school year is 2 weeks.

The working time during the school year of principals, vice principals, and teachers of preparatory schools is 42 weeks. Specifically:

• The number of weeks for teaching and organizing educational activities according to the school year plan is 28 weeks;
• The number of weeks for studying, improving qualifications, building documents, scientific research and some other activities according to the school year plan is 12 weeks;
• The number of weeks to prepare for the new school year and summarize the school year is 2 weeks.

In particular, from the 2024-2025 school year, principals and vice principals will have summer vacations like teachers. This summer vacation is flexibly arranged during the school year and during the summer break.

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Source: https://vtcnews.vn/hieu-truong-hieu-pho-la-vien-chuc-hay-cong-chuc-ar940285.html