After 6 months of 'tightening' extra teaching and learning: Surprise about teachers' income outside of salary

TPO - After a semester of implementing Circular 29 regulating extra teaching and learning, public opinion is always curious to find the answer to the question: Will teachers' income increase or decrease?

Clear boundary between real and virtual extra learning needs

Mr. MH, a Math teacher at a famous high school in Hanoi , said that before Circular 29, his extra classes outside of school were mostly for students from other high schools in Hanoi. Students in his classes at school almost never registered because he encouraged them to study in class.

When Circular 29 is applied, the number of extra classes that the teacher teaches outside remains the same. The difference is that the place where the teacher rents space to teach has now become a cultural training center and the teacher is hired according to regulations. However, the number of extra classes at the school is no longer there, so the teacher's income has decreased.

“But this decrease in income is not because there are no students taking extra classes, but because I realized that teaching the current number of classes outside is enough even though students still want to sign up for more. Maybe it’s because I’m lazy,” said Mr. MH.

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

He affirmed that the number of teachers opening classes outside the country is definitely increasing based on actual observations. The training center where he is hired to teach is constantly opening more branches in the regions.

Ms. NTP, a high school literature teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, has never taught extra classes to students in class. Therefore, with the promulgation of Circular 29, her extra-curricular teaching work has not changed. Ms. P strongly supports Circular 29 because it clearly distinguishes negative extra-curricular teaching from extra-curricular teaching based on demand.

Ms. NTTr, a Literature teacher at a secondary school in Ninh Binh , said that Circular 29 has had a strong impact on the income of teachers at the school where she teaches. Previously, teachers could teach extra classes at school (in the form of extra classes in the second session) or outside of school. Of which, the income from extra classes at school is the main source. Ms. T., for example, the tuition fee for extra classes at school is only 30,000 VND/class/student, but nearly 100% of students in each class attend (classes of 40-45 students), teachers receive 70% from this tuition source.

Circular 29 was issued, teachers had to find a center to register to open a class, although the tuition fee was 50,000 VND/lesson/student, but the class only had 10-15 students. This part of the budget had to be deducted for the center, so teachers only received very little. Although income was affected, Ms. Tr. affirmed that Circular 29 had drawn the line between real and virtual needs.

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

Countermeasure

At the conference announcing the Vietnam education sector analysis report 2011-2020, the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences (Ministry of Education and Training) said that on average, students' families contribute about 24% of the total cost for students (preschool, primary, secondary) to go to school. Family contributions tend to increase gradually with the level of education.

Tutoring fees are the biggest expense for families of high school students. For primary school, it is 32%; middle school, it is 42% and high school, it is 43%. Tutoring and teaching are like a huge industry. It is because of this "bargain" that, shortly after Circular 29 took effect, teachers had flexible "adaptive" solutions.

Reporters noted that some cultural training centers were established only to serve teachers of a school who registered to teach extra classes and the target students were from that school. In order to not violate Circular 29, teachers switched to teaching "cross-wings". For example, teachers who were teaching 8A students at school would teach 8B students at the center and vice versa. This cooperation once again shows that the management agency has policies and teachers will have countermeasures.

The only thing is, as Ms. Tr analyzed above, extra-curricular learning is currently being done voluntarily, and teachers are not allowed to teach their own students, so their "soft power" has been significantly reduced.

But Circular 29 also unintentionally limits students' right to choose their teachers properly. Because many parents want the teacher who is currently tutoring their children to tutor them because they consider the teacher to be competent and able to meet the students' goals.

Reduce the burden of extra classes

At the conference to summarize the 2024-2025 school year and deploy tasks for the 2025-2026 school year of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Pham Ngoc Thuong said that he once asked a principal in Hanoi whether teachers' income would decrease due to the implementation of Circular 29. The principal replied: "It has decreased a lot, but we will implement it seriously."

The Ministry's leaders analyzed that in fact the decrease comes from income that does not belong to teachers. So, it is not a decrease.

In the long term, according to Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong, it is necessary to build enough schools so that there is no more pressure on student numbers and pressure on specialized schools and selective classes. In reality, although secondary education is universalized, meaning that primary school graduates are guaranteed enough places to study in public secondary schools from grade 6, there is still a race to study extra classes from primary school. The reason is that parents want their children to study in the best schools, which are highly competitive, so they have to go through rigorous competency assessment exams.

A sociology expert commented: Extra tutoring and extra teaching are just changing from one form to another. It is difficult for the education sector to eradicate this problem. With Circular 29, the Ministry of Education and Training has removed extra tutoring and extra learning from public schools, but how to manage and inspect these activities outside of schools is not under the authority of the education sector.

According to this sociologist, the ball of responsibility has been kicked to another court. Parents who want their children to take extra classes will have to pay higher tuition fees and, importantly, it is still difficult to escape the soft power of subject teachers when they compromise to teach cross-teaching.

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