New proposal on reducing norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam

New proposal on reducing norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam

On June 21, the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam announced a draft Circular regulating the working policies for high school and preparatory university teachers (Draft).

>> View the full text of the Draft Circular regulating the working policies for high school and preparatory university teachers:

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A new proposal regarding reducing the norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam is outlined in Article 10 of the Draft as follows:

For job positions that cannot find a worker and must assign teachers as concurrent holders, schools may use teaching hours for performing those duties. To be specific:

(1) Teachers concurrently performing academic duties:

- A high school with 28 classes or more in Region 2 and Region 3, or 19 classes or more in Region 1 can use 08 hours/week; other high schools can use 04 hours/week for academic duties;

- The principal is responsible for determining the number of hours to reduce for each teacher holding concurrent academic duties, ensuring that the total reduced hours do not exceed the hours allocated for academic duties of the school.

(2) Teachers concurrently performing student counseling duties:

- A high school with 28 classes or more in Region 2 and Region 3, or 19 classes or more in Region 1 can use 08 hours/week; other high schools can use 04 hours/week for student counseling duties;

- The principal is responsible for determining the number of hours to reduce for each teacher holding concurrent student counseling duties, ensuring that the total reduced hours do not exceed the hours allocated for student counseling duties of the school.

(3) Teachers concurrently performing clerical work, office management duties (including responsibility for the IT room) or library duties (including responsibility for the library room) are entitled to a reduction of 03 hours/week per duty.

New proposal on reducing norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam (Internet image)

Current policies on reducing norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam

The current policies on reducing norms on teaching hours for teachers holding concurrent positions in schools in Vietnam include:

(1) Policies on reducing teaching load for teachers holding concurrent academic duties

Based on Article 8 of the Regulation on working policies for high school teachers issued with Circular 28/2009/TT-BGDDT, supplemented by Clause 8 Article 1 of Circular 15/2017/TT-BGDDT:

- Class teachers at the primary level are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/week, and at the lower secondary and upper secondary levels are entitled to a reduction of 4 hours/week.

- Class teachers at ethnic boarding schools at the lower secondary and upper secondary levels are entitled to a reduction of 4 hours/week. Class teachers at special schools, semi-boarding schools are entitled to a reduction of 4 hours/week. Class teachers at schools or classes for disabled or handicapped students are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/week.

- Class teachers at preparatory university schools are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/week.

- Teachers concurrently in charge of subject rooms are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/subject/week.

- Teachers concurrently in charge of school-wide arts, physical education, school garden, school workshop, facility room, library (if those duties are not covered by specialized personnel) are entitled to a reduction of 2-3 hours/week depending on the workload and as decided by the principal.

- Subject group leaders are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/week.

- Deputy subject group leaders are entitled to a reduction of 1 hour/week.

- Teachers concurrently in charge of functional rooms at preparatory university schools are entitled to a reduction of 3 hours/week.

- Teachers concurrently in charge of functional rooms at preparatory university schools are entitled to a reduction of 1 hour/week.

(2) Policies on reducing teaching load for teachers concurrently handling Communist Party, union, and other school organizations

Based on Article 9 of the Regulation on working policies for high school teachers issued with Circular 28/2009/TT-BGDDT, amended by Clause 9 Article 1 of Circular 15/2017/TT-BGDDT:

- High school teachers concurrently serving as heads of the party committee, branch secretaries (in places without a party committee) at Grade 1 schools are entitled to a reduction of 4 hours/week, and at other schools to a reduction of 3 hours/week.

- High school teachers concurrently handling union duties are allocated teaching load reductions according to regulations in Article 3 of Circular 08/2016/TT-BGDDT as follows:

+ Teachers serving as the president, vice president of a non-specialized school-level union are entitled to a reduction of 03 teaching hours per week (equivalent to 105 teaching hours per school year);

+ Teachers serving as members of the union executive committee, union group leaders, vice leaders are entitled to a reduction of 01 teaching hour per week (equivalent to 35 teaching hours per school year);

- High school teachers concurrently serving as youth union secretary, deputy secretary at the school level enjoy the policies according to regulations in Decision 13/2013/QD-TTg.

- Teachers concurrently serving as chairpersons of the school council, secretaries of the school council are entitled to a reduction of 2 hours/week.

- Teachers concurrently serving as heads of the school inspection committee are entitled to a reduction of 2 hours/week.

What are the current norms on teaching hours for teachers in Vietnam?

According to Article 6 of Circular 28/2009/TT-BGDDT, supplemented by Clause 5 Article 1 of Circular 15/2017/TT-BGDDT, the teaching load is the number of theoretical or practical hours each teacher must teach in a week. To be specific:

- The teaching load for primary school teachers is 23 hours, for lower secondary school teachers is 19 hours, for upper secondary school teachers is 17 hours;

- The teaching load for teachers at ethnic boarding schools is 17 hours at the lower secondary level, 15 hours at the upper secondary level;

- The teaching load for teachers at semi-boarding schools is 21 hours at the primary level, 17 hours at the lower secondary level;

- The teaching load for teachers at schools or classes for disabled or handicapped students is 21 hours for primary teachers, 17 hours for lower secondary teachers.

- The teaching load for teachers at preparatory university schools is 12 hours.

- Teachers serving as Chief Supervisors of the Ho Chi Minh Young Pioneers Team at Grade 1 schools teach 2 hours per week, at Grade 2 schools teach 1/3 of the teaching load, and at Grade 3 schools teach 1/2 of the teaching load of teachers at the same education level. The classification of schools follows current regulations.