Teachers play a decisive role in the quality of education.

Strictly regulate policies to support, attract and employ teachers.

The draft Law on Teachers consists of 9 chapters and 45 articles, regulating professional activities, rights and obligations of teachers; titles and professional standards of teachers; recruitment and use of teachers; salary and remuneration policies for teachers; training, fostering and international cooperation for teachers; honoring, rewarding and handling violations of teachers; and management of teachers.

The policies in the draft Law proposed by the Government and approved by the National Assembly include: Identification of teachers; standards and titles of teachers; recruitment, use and working regime of teachers; training, fostering, treatment and honoring of teachers; State management of teachers. These policies aim to concretize the Party's guiding viewpoint: "Developingeducation and training is the top national policy, teachers play a decisive role in the quality of education"; creating a favorable legal environment for the development, standardization and improvement of teacher quality; ensuring equality between public and non-public teachers in terms of quality and professional activities; removing obstacles and difficulties in the practice of teacher management.

Compared to the draft Law submitted at the 8th Session, this draft Law removes the provision on considering a 1-grade salary increase for teachers recruited for the first time; revises the provisions on salaries of teachers in non-public educational and training institutions to comply with the provisions of the law on labor to ensure consistency in the legal system; supplements the policy of supporting housing rent equal to the rental rate of public housing for teachers assigned to work in difficult areas; supplements the group of teachers who enjoy the policy of attracting and promoting teachers who perform the tasks of teaching, educating, and conducting scientific research in a number of key and essential fields according to the needs of socio -economic development and assigns the Government to specify this content in detail.

Presenting the Report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft law on salary policy for teachers, Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Social Affairs Nguyen Dac Vinh said that there were opinions suggesting regulations on salaries and allowances for teachers in line with the policy and roadmap for salary policy reform. "Accepting the opinions of National Assembly deputies, the draft Law stipulates that teachers' salaries are ranked highest in the administrative career salary scale system and have additional allowances depending on the nature of the job and by region," said Mr. Vinh.

Concerned about the regulations on policies to attract and promote teachers, National Assembly Deputy Mai Van Hai (Thanh Hoa) emphasized that these are very important policies in the context of our country implementing fundamental and comprehensive educational reform, which is a pillar policy to attract talented people and teachers for ethnic minority areas, mountainous areas, border areas, islands, and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions. Therefore, the regulations need to be strict and feasible to avoid taking advantage of the policy. The delegate suggested that the subjects need to be defined more clearly; these regulations need to inherit the regulations on recruitment for excellent graduates, and specific criteria should be defined to identify highly qualified people, talented people, people with special talents, and people with high vocational skills to determine priority subjects accordingly.

Extend retirement age for highly qualified teachers

Regarding the retirement regime for teachers, the Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Social Affairs said that there were opinions suggesting considering regulations on preschool teachers being allowed to retire early because this is under the authority of the Government (according to the provisions of the Labor Code); suggesting adding binding criteria, ensuring the principle of contribution - benefit according to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance. “Currently, preschool teachers are not considered to be working in arduous, toxic, and dangerous industries and occupations. However, preschool teachers have to perform specific jobs, with great pressure on work and working hours; when they are old, it will be difficult to complete their tasks. Therefore, many opinions of National Assembly deputies and relevant agencies agree to reduce the retirement age for preschool teachers with the regimes as stipulated in the draft Law,” said Mr. Vinh.

Regarding the proposal to extend the retirement age for teachers with high qualifications, academic titles, and degrees, and with deep expertise in specific fields, Mr. Vinh said that it is necessary and reasonable to take advantage of and exploit high-quality human resources, overcoming the shortage of highly qualified teachers in a number of specific specialized fields and industries that the country's development trend requires. "The draft Law clearly stipulates the conditions for implementing this policy when educational institutions have a need, teachers are healthy enough and voluntarily extend their working time; at the same time, it adds criteria to meet the standards and conditions of educational institutions. During the period of extended retirement age, teachers in public educational institutions shall not hold leadership and management positions and shall not be allowed to retain leadership and management position allowances," the Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society informed.

Need special regulations to limit extra teaching and learning

One content that many National Assembly deputies are interested in is the regulation prohibiting the forcing of students to participate in extra classes in any form (point c, clause 2, Article 11 of the draft Law). The report on explanation, acceptance and revision of the draft Law clearly states that the organization and management of extra teaching activities need to be regulated in the documents guiding the implementation, creating a legal corridor to strictly manage extra teaching and learning activities.

National Assembly Deputy To Van Tam (Kon Tum) said that the issue of extra teaching and learning is of great concern to society and the Ministry of Education and Training recently issued a circular on this issue. However, according to the delegate, if the program, the amount of knowledge in the program and the teaching method at school help students "grasp" all the knowledge and when they go home, they only review the old lessons, then there will be no need for extra learning, no extra teaching.

“Is the problem here that the current program and the amount of knowledge in the program are too heavy?”. Asking this question, delegate To Van Tam also suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should review to ensure that the program and the amount of knowledge in the program are suitable for the learners’ ability to absorb.

Delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Thai Binh) noted that the draft Law does not have specific and clear regulations on the issue of extra teaching and learning and expressed his opinion that it is necessary to recognize that this issue comes from the learning needs of society, but it is necessary to combat the negative phenomenon of teachers forcing students to participate in extra classes.

Therefore, the delegate suggested that the draft Law should have regulations to organize this activity in a formal manner like other types of services, with order and regulations to limit negativity. It is necessary to legislate a ban on spontaneous tutoring and learning, and it is necessary to assign the Government or the Ministry of Education and Training to develop a set of regulations on private tutoring and learning in a public direction; develop specific regulations to limit the widespread practice of spontaneous tutoring and learning, avoiding waste and unnecessary activities.

According to the working program of the 9th Session of the 15th National Assembly, the Law on Teachers will be voted on and passed on the afternoon of June 11, 2025.

Article and photos: THE PHONG

Source: https://nhandan.vn/nha-giao-co-vai-tro-quyet-dinh-chat-luong-giao-duc-post878540.html