Reasons for needing a special salary coefficient for teachers

The Ministry of Education and Training believes that in the context that the Government has not yet issued a new salary policy, it is necessary to stipulate a special salary coefficient for teachers to resolve many shortcomings in the current way of calculating teachers' salaries.

LOWEST SALARY FOR KINDERGARTEN TEACHERS

A young teacher of a kindergarten in Dinh Ke Ward ( Bac Ninh ) shared that she has only been officially on the payroll for 3 years. Up to now, her monthly salary is more than 7 million VND including allowances, while when she first started her career, her salary was only about 5 million VND/month. This amount of money is enough to raise a small child and cover the difficult living expenses in an urban area.

The salary scale applied to preschool teachers is the lowest among all teaching positions.

PHOTO: NHAT THINH

The characteristic of preschool teachers is that they can hardly do anything else to earn income besides their salary; they cannot teach extra classes like ordinary teachers, plus the pressure of working hours. Preschool teachers even have to spend their own money to buy materials to make teaching aids and toys for children in the context of lack of teaching equipment, especially during each test or organizing teaching topics...

Many teachers also pointed out the shortcomings in the salary policy between new and old preschool teachers: the work of caring for and teaching children is the same, even in information technology, lesson planning and movement activities, young teachers participate more enthusiastically and more. Yet old teachers receive university salaries from 2.34 - 4.98, while young teachers with university degrees, with 6 - 10 years of seniority, receive intermediate salaries and then college salaries from 2.1 - 4.89.

Meanwhile, there is almost no chance of upgrading, because the quota and structure of each rank are controlled, so although there are enough conditions for upgrading, many teachers are still at the lowest rank. The Ministry of Education and Training has planned a specific coefficient but it does not solve the problem of starting salary or the longer the tenure, the higher the salary without calculating according to capacity and level of dedication, which does not solve the current problems, and does not attract talented young people to the profession and feel secure in sticking with it.

Many opinions also shared that salary policy needs to change so that teachers' starting salary is 7-10 million VND and gradually increases according to their level of dedication.

The Department of Teachers and Educational Managers (Ministry of Education and Training) stated the reality: the salary scale applied to preschool teachers is A0 (2.10), A1 (2.34), A2.2 (4.00), according to 10 salary scales of civil servants, the salary of preschool teachers is at scale 5, 6, 7, while other civil servants mainly enjoy salary scale 6, 8, 10. "From that, it can be seen that the salary scale applied to preschool teachers is the lowest among the teacher titles and lower than all civil servants in other sectors and fields. While the working environment and the nature of the professional activities of preschool teachers have been proven to be difficult in practice," according to this Department.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, teachers' salaries are not currently ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system.

PHOTO: DNT

TEACHERS' SALARY IS NOT "THE HIGHEST" BUT "LOWER"

The Ministry of Education and Training also emphasized: "According to current regulations, teachers' salaries are not ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system, and the majority of teachers are even ranked at a lower salary scale."

Specifically, when reviewing and comparing the applied salary scale, the Ministry of Education and Training pointed out that the actual salaries of most teachers are lower than those of civil servants in other sectors such as health , construction, transportation (road technicians, managers, construction maintenance), justice (resume staff), culture, sports (directors, actors, artists, coaches), science and technology (researchers, engineers), information and communication...

Civil servants in other sectors are classified into 3-4 ranks, enjoying salary scales of 6, 8, 10. Except for medical officers and science and technology officers who require a doctorate or master's degree with rank I, other sectors only require the general training level of civil servants from rank III to rank I, which is university.

Teachers and civil servants in general are subject to the professional and technical salary scale for cadres and civil servants in state-owned enterprises, and receive a starting salary corresponding to the training level requirements (type B for intermediate level, type A0 for college level, types A1, A2, A3 for university level and above).

The number of senior teacher positions (grade I at preschool, general education, continuing education, and university preparatory levels) accounts for about 8.83% of the total number of teachers, and is only ranked at the salary of type A2 civil servants (equivalent to the title of senior civil servants in other sectors and fields).

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, one of the important principles when implementing the salary regime is to ensure the correlation between sectors, occupations and between types of cadres, civil servants and public employees. However, from the above analysis, it can be seen that the current salary arrangement of teachers does not ensure the correlation between sectors and occupations even though they have the same training requirements and teachers have been identified as having an important position in society.

H SPECIAL WAGE COEFFICIENT IS NECESSARY

To implement the Law on Teachers, which will take effect on January 1, 2026, the Ministry of Education and Training is advising the Government to issue a Decree regulating salary and allowance policies for teachers. One of the prominent policies expected to be stipulated in this Decree is that all teachers will enjoy a special salary coefficient.

In particular, preschool teachers are entitled to a special salary coefficient of 1.25 compared to the current salary coefficient; other teaching positions are entitled to a special salary coefficient of 1.15 compared to the current salary coefficient. For teachers teaching at schools, classes for people with disabilities, centers to support the development of inclusive education, and boarding schools in border areas, an additional 0.05 is added to the prescribed level.

However, the Ministry of Education and Training believes that the salary arrangement of teachers can only be fundamentally resolved when the Government issues a new salary policy and rearranges the salary scale of teachers and other officials. However, in the context that the Government has not issued a new salary policy, it is necessary to issue regulations on specific salary coefficients (as in the draft Decree mentioned above).

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, although the special salary coefficient does not help teachers' salaries to be ranked "highest", it will help teachers' salaries to be ranked "higher" than those of civil servants with the same applicable salary scale. The teaching staff nationwide looks forward to the consensus of competent authorities on the regulation of special salary coefficients to gradually resolve the shortcomings of the current salary scale system, and at the same time implement the policy of "teachers' salaries being the highest in the administrative career salary scale system".

If approved, teachers' monthly salaries will range from 6.14 million VND to 18.66 million VND, an increase of 1-2 million VND/month compared to present. The highest increase is 3.73 million VND for kindergarten teachers of grade I and level 3, but according to statistics, this group is only about 80 people nationwide. In addition, teachers are entitled to one or several types of allowances, such as seniority allowance (calculated after 5 years of work, 1 year each), preferential occupational allowance (35-70%), toxic allowance...

Income is not enough to live on: One of the reasons teachers quit their jobs

Teachers who have participated in teaching and education and have paid compulsory social insurance for 5 years (60 months) are entitled to seniority allowance equal to 5% of their current salary plus leadership position allowance and seniority allowance exceeding the framework (if any). From the 6th year onwards, each year (12 months) is calculated with an additional 1%.

Thus, in the first 5 years of work, new teachers only receive salaries according to the salary coefficient and preferential allowances, without seniority allowances, so the total income is still low, so there is a large gap compared to long-time teachers even though the basic tasks are the same. Specifically, the lowest salary of preschool teachers is about 6.6 million VND, primary school teachers is about 7.3 million VND, middle school, high school and university preparatory teachers is about 7.1 million VND; there is a huge gap compared to the highest salaries of teachers, respectively 20.6 million VND, 24.6 million VND, 28.5 million VND and 30.5 million VND; lower than the average salary of 7.7 million VND of workers in 2024.

"Income that is not enough to live on is also part of the reason why the number of teachers quitting their jobs has been increasing in recent years, especially among young teachers under 35 years old," the Ministry of Education and Training stated.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ly-do-can-co-he-so-luong-dac-thu-voi-nha-giao-185251110225743953.htm