Removing difficulties for teachers to enjoy subsidies for teaching disabled students

Ms. Dang Thi Thanh, a former teacher at Nga Thach Primary School, has been retired for many years but has not received a teaching allowance for disabled children.

Retired for many years but have not received any benefits

Ms. Mai Thi Duyen, former teacher of Nga Trung Primary School, worked inthe education sector from September 1991 to September 2021. During her work, in the 2019-2020 school year, she was assigned to directly teach in a class with disabled students. According to Clause 1, Article 7, Decree No. 28/2012/ND-CP dated October 4, 2012 of the Prime Minister detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on People with Disabilities, teachers of disabled students will enjoy preferential allowances. Although she was instructed to prepare the documents, she still had not received the allowance according to regulations when she retired in 2021.

Ms. Dang Thi Thanh, a former teacher at Nga Thach Primary School, said: "I worked from 1989 to 2020, and was assigned to teach in a class with disabled students. When the decree was issued, I and other teachers were very happy because the State cared about and supported the regime for teachers of disabled students, giving us more motivation to stick with the profession. However, despite waiting for many years, when I retired, I still did not receive this regime."

In 2022, while working as a contract teacher at Nga Thach Primary School, Ms. Thanh was instructed by the school to apply for preferential treatment for teachers of disabled students from the 2012-2013 school year to the 2020-2021 school year. According to the calculation of Decree No. 28/2012/ND-CP, the total allowance she received from September 2012 to October 2020 was more than 37.7 million VND.

“Because of the long time I spent teaching disabled children and the many supporting documents, I had to spend a lot of time, effort, and money to notarize the documents according to regulations... However, more than 3 years since I made the documents and nearly 5 years since my retirement, I still have not received the money. The documents were returned without knowing the reason,” Ms. Thanh added.

According to the reporter's investigation, all teachers teaching disabled students in an integrated manner from preschool to secondary school from 2012-2020 in Nga Son district have not received allowances according to Decree No. 28/2012/ND-CP.

A principal in Nga Son district said that before 2022, schools did not have separate education plans for students with disabilities, so there were no complete records to consider for subsidies. “Teaching students with disabilities is very hard work. The government has a support policy, so it is necessary to remove difficulties in records to avoid teachers being disadvantaged,” the principal suggested.

Can the difficulty be resolved?

Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Nga Son District Pham Van Uy said: From 2012 to 2021, teachers at 82 kindergartens and secondary schools in the district have not received preferential allowances according to Decree No. 28/2012/ND-CP. The reason is that the documents are incomplete. Specifically, according to Circular No. 03/2018/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training regulating inclusive education for people with disabilities, the documents for approving allowances for teachers of disabled students must include documents such as: certificate of the student's disability level, individual education plan for the student and student's learning progress monitoring book.

However, during this period, most schools did not have individual education plans for students with disabilities. Teachers also could not provide original copies of progress records or disability certificates for students.

Faced with the situation where the documents showed signs of being “re-made”, the Department of Education and Training requested the principals - members of the document appraisal council to confirm the authenticity of the documents. However, no principal signed to confirm that the documents were originals stored from previous years in accordance with regulations...

According to Official Dispatch No. 4112/SGDĐT-HTTC of the Department of Education and Training of Thanh Hoa Province on the dossier for implementing the payment of allowances for teachers of children with disabilities under the inclusive education method, the school year plan is one of the mandatory documents for considering the allowance. This is also a dossier with a permanent retention period according to regulations. Therefore, if schools no longer have their school year plan, they are not eligible to pay allowances according to regulations, so teachers are the ones who suffer.

To resolve difficulties and problems related to documents and policies for teachers of disabled children, authorities need to have solutions to remove obstacles in document procedures to ensure the rights of teachers.

Article and photos: Linh Huong

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/thao-go-kho-khan-de-giao-vien-duoc-huong-che-do-tro-cap-day-hoc-sinh-khuet-tat-245060.htm