After 6 months of tightening restrictions on tutoring and extra classes: Surprising revelations about teachers' income outside of their salaries.

TPO - After a semester of implementing Circular 29 regulating tutoring and supplementary classes, the public is curious to find the answer to the question: Will teachers' income increase or decrease?

Clearly distinguish between genuine and virtual tutoring needs.

Mr. MH, a math teacher at a well-known high school in Hanoi, said that before Circular 29, his extracurricular classes were mostly for students from other high schools in Hanoi. Students in his own classes hardly ever registered because he encouraged them to just study in class.

When Circular 29 was implemented, the number of extra classes the teacher taught outside of school remained the same. The difference was that the space the teacher rented for teaching had now become a cultural enrichment center, and they hired teachers according to regulations. However, the number of extra classes at the school was reduced, so the teacher's income decreased.

"But this decrease in income isn't due to a lack of extra students, but rather because I've realized that teaching the current number of extra classes is sufficient, even though students still want to register for more. Perhaps it's because I'm lazy," said teacher MH.

Students in Ha Tinh province at the opening ceremony of the 2025-2026 school year. Photo: Hoai Nam

The teacher asserted that the number of teachers going out to open their own classes has definitely increased, based on practical observation. The training center where he is employed is continuously opening new branches in various areas.

Ms. NTP, a high school Literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, has never tutored students in her regular classes. Therefore, the issuance of Circular 29 did not change her extracurricular tutoring activities. Ms. P strongly supports Circular 29 because it clearly distinguishes between negative tutoring practices and tutoring based on student needs.

Ms. NTTr, a secondary school literature teacher in Ninh Binh, said that Circular 29 has had a significant impact on the income of teachers at her school. Previously, teachers could both teach extra classes at school (in the form of supplementary lessons in the afternoon) and teach outside of school. However, the income from extra classes at school was the main source of income. Ms. T. gave an example: the tuition fee for extra classes at school was only 30,000 VND per lesson per student, but nearly 100% of the students in each class (classes of 40-45 students) attended, and the teacher received 70% of this fee.

With the issuance of Circular 29, teachers had to find centers to register and open classes. Although the tuition fee was 50,000 VND per lesson per student, the classes only had 10-15 students. This fee also had to be deducted for the center, so teachers received very little. Despite the impact on her income, Ms. Tr. affirmed that Circular 29 had drawn a line between real and artificial needs.

However, some teachers still earn very high incomes from tutoring outside of school thanks to Circular 29. Because when parents are not forced to take extra classes with the teachers who teach in class, they will choose the teacher for their children. While Ms. Tr.'s classes charge 50,000 VND/lesson/student, some teachers charge double that and have a large number of students. According to Ms. Tr., the number of such teachers is not large; if you consider only the old Nam Dinh city, there are only 1-2 such teachers.

Countermeasures

At a conference announcing the 2011-2020 Vietnam Education Sector Analysis Report, the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences (Ministry of Education and Training) stated that, on average, students' families contribute approximately 24% of the total cost of their education (preschool, primary, and secondary). Family contributions tend to increase with each educational level.

Tutoring costs are the biggest expense for families of primary and secondary school students. For primary school, it's 32%; for secondary school, 42%; and for high school, 43%. Tutoring has become a huge industry. It is precisely because of this lucrative opportunity that, shortly after Circular 29 came into effect, teachers have found flexible solutions to adapt to it.

Reporters have observed that some tutoring centers are established solely to serve teachers from a particular school who register to provide extra tutoring, with the students being from that same school. To avoid violating Circular 29, teachers engage in "cross-teaching" (student swapping). For example, a teacher currently teaching 8A students at their school might teach 8B students at the center, and vice versa. This collaboration once again demonstrates that while the management agency has policies, teachers will have countermeasures.

However, as Ms. Tr analyzed above, extracurricular tutoring outside of school is currently done on a voluntary basis, and classroom teachers are not allowed to teach their own students, so their "soft power" has been significantly reduced.

However, Circular 29 also inadvertently restricts students' right to legitimately choose their teachers. This is because many parents want the same teacher who is currently teaching their child to provide extra tutoring, as they consider the teacher competent and able to meet the students' goals.

Reduce the burden of extra tutoring.

At the Hanoi Department of Education and Training's conference summarizing the 2024-2025 school year and outlining tasks for the 2025-2026 school year, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong stated that he once asked a school principal in Hanoi whether teachers' incomes had decreased since implementing Circular 29. The principal replied: "It decreased significantly, but we implemented it seriously."

According to the Ministry's leadership, the reduction actually comes from income that does not belong to the teachers. Therefore, it is not a reduction in actual income.

In the long term, according to Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong, it is necessary to build enough schools and classrooms to eliminate the pressure of overcrowding and the need for specialized schools and selective classes. Currently, despite the universalization of lower secondary education, meaning that primary school graduates are guaranteed sufficient places in public lower secondary schools from grade 6 onwards, there is still a competition for extra tutoring from primary school. This is because parents want their children to attend the best schools, which have high competition levels and require rigorous aptitude tests.

A sociologist commented: Extracurricular tutoring is simply shifting from one form to another. The education sector will find it difficult to eradicate this problem. While Circular 29 from the Ministry of Education and Training has removed extracurricular tutoring from public schools, managing and inspecting these activities outside of schools is not within the authority of the education sector.

According to this sociologist, the ball of responsibility has even been kicked to another court; parents who want their children to attend extra classes will have to pay higher tuition fees, and importantly, they still find it difficult to escape the soft power of subject teachers when they collude to teach across different departments.

Source: https://tienphong.vn/sau-6-thang-siet-day-them-hoc-them-bat-ngo-ve-thu-nhap-ngoai-luong-cua-giao-vien-post1777194.tpo