Breakthrough in salary and bonus policies and major changes in the education sector

(Dan Tri) - The 2025-2026 school year is a special milestone as the education sector celebrates its 80th anniversary, while also marking breakthrough changes with the promulgation of Resolution 71-NQ/TW of the Politburo.

On the eve of the new school year, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son had an exchange with Dan Tri about new directions and great opportunities for the whole industry to make a breakthrough, especially in the context of digital technology and artificial intelligence reshaping global education.

Resolution 71-NQ/TW: Great opportunity for the education sector to make a breakthrough

Dear Minister, the 2025-2026 school year is a special year as the entire education sector celebrates its 80th anniversary. At the same time, the Politburo issued Resolution 71-NQ/TW on breakthroughs in education and training development. How does the Minister assess the significance of this Resolution for the sector in the current context?

- Resolution 71 was issued on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of National Day, the 80th anniversary of the tradition of the Education sector and also the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Ministry of National Education (now the Ministry of Education and Training ) continuing to demonstrate the Party's special attention to Education and Training; affirming that education is always an element closely linked to and deciding the development of the country; showing the consistency of the viewpoint that Education and Training is the top national policy, deciding the future of the nation.

The Resolution also demonstrates the Party's new vision and strategy for the future education system, when the world context is undergoing profound and comprehensive changes, especially digital technology and artificial intelligence are reshaping education on a global scale.

In addition, the Resolution has identified major goals along with tasks and solutions of strong breakthrough nature to innovate and improve Vietnamese education.

For the entire education sector, this is a great opportunity to make a breakthrough, to affirm the decisive position of education in the country's development. Aware of this, the Ministry of Education and Training is urgently developing and submitting to the Government a draft of the Government's Action Program to implement Resolution 71 and will concretize it with the Ministry of Education and Training's Action Plan to implement it right from the beginning of this school year.

Teachers' salaries expected to increase, recruitment in specific directions

One of the issues that society is most concerned about is policies for teachers. Could you please tell us about the new points regarding recruitment, salary and other benefits policies?

- Immediately after the National Assembly passed the Law on Teachers, the Ministry of Education and Training proactively developed a system of documents guiding its implementation. In particular, regarding the recruitment of teachers, the Ministry is developing a Circular with the direction of assigning the Department of Education and Training to take the lead in implementation, or advising the Provincial People's Committee to decentralize and delegate authority in accordance with local realities.

The above approach ensures the implementation of the policy of reducing intermediaries, synchronizing recruitment quality (one-time recruitment can be registered for admission to many schools based on exam/review results), saving costs, increasing opportunities for recruitment participants; at the same time, contributing to overcoming the situation of local surplus/shortage of teachers as well as ensuring the structure of the team according to grade level, subject, and educational activities.

Many special policies and regimes for teachers will be implemented in the coming time (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).

In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training is developing a Decree detailing a number of articles of the Law on Teachers, including regulations on the content and form of teacher recruitment.

As planned, the recruitment will consist of 2 rounds of exams, in line with current regulations on civil servant recruitment. However, round 2 - on expertise and profession - will be designed differently, closely following the actual process of teaching and education activities, ensuring the correct assessment of the pedagogical capacity and professional skills of candidates at each level of education and training.

This is expected to be an important innovation, aiming to overcome previous limitations when applying the general mechanism for civil servants without taking into account the specific characteristics of the teaching profession.

The Ministry of Education and Training is finalizing a draft of detailed regulations on salaries, allowances and policies to attract and support teachers.

It is expected that the basic salary of all teachers will increase, by at least 2 million VND, and at most up to 5-7 million VND/person/month. This increase is only calculated on the basic salary, not including other allowances.

Teacher shortage remains a major challenge. What solutions has the Ministry put in place to address this problem?

- In the 2022-2026 period, the education sector will be supplemented with 65,980 positions by the Politburo. In the two school years 2022-2023 and 2023-2024, the country will recruit more than 40,000 teachers. However, due to the continuous increase in the number of students and classes, the demand for teachers has also increased sharply (the 2023-2024 school year will need 13,676 more teachers; the 2024-2025 school year will need about 22,000 more teachers). Therefore, many localities still lack teachers.

The main reason is due to limited recruitment sources. In some subjects such as information technology, foreign languages, and arts, the Pedagogy sector has difficulty recruiting students because teachers' income is still low. In addition, the process of allocating and recruiting staff in many localities is slow and prolonged.

Faced with this situation, the Ministry of Education and Training has been implementing many solutions such as: directing training institutions to open major codes, train teachers according to the actual needs of localities, especially specific subjects; requiring localities to recruit enough assigned staff; directing localities to review and arrange the school network; piloting the autonomy mechanism in some public preschools and general schools; promoting socialization...

Along with solutions from the Central Government, the Ministry recommends that localities proactively recruit enough assigned staff, have policies to attract and support teachers, and arrange funding to implement teacher contracts according to regulations.

Ensuring educational management in a two-tier government model

The application of the two-tier local government model also poses many challenges in education management. What has the Ministry done to ensure smooth operations?

- To ensure that educational activities are not disrupted in the context of two-level local government, the Ministry of Education and Training has implemented many synchronous solutions.

Regarding institutional improvement, the Ministry has developed and issued 2 Decrees and 6 Circulars regulating decentralization, delegation of authority, and assignment of state management authority in the field of education.

Regarding professional guidance, the Ministry has issued official dispatches on primary school admissions regardless of administrative boundaries; organizing two sessions of teaching per day; implementing tasks for the 2026-2027 school year; implementing programs and textbooks in the context of changes in administrative boundaries... The Ministry also organized seminars, established hotlines, received information and resolved difficulties and problems of localities.

The Ministry of Education and Training has issued official dispatches on primary school admissions regardless of administrative boundaries (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).

Regarding capacity building, the Ministry has developed documents, organized training courses, and published handbooks to support education managers at the commune level and the Departments of Education and Training in accessing complete, systematic, concise, and easy-to-understand information. In addition, the Ministry has also organized 6 inspection teams in 15 provinces on this issue.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will continue to review legal documents; strengthen professional guidance; complete the industry data system, ensure connectivity and synchronization... and continue to accompany and support localities in implementing decentralized and delegated tasks.

To effectively implement educational tasks in the 2025-2026 school year in the new context, the Ministry also noted some important contents that localities need to focus on.

Manage extra teaching, extra learning and implement 2 sessions/day teaching

Another issue that is of great public concern is the management of extra teaching and learning and the implementation of two-session teaching/day. What is the Ministry's view on this issue?

- Regarding the management of extra teaching and learning, the Ministry of Education and Training continues to adhere to the viewpoint that "extra learning can bring about the consolidation of knowledge, but brings little value to human development". The profound consequences of the widespread situation of extra teaching and learning require continued drastic rectification.

Therefore, in the 2025-2026 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training will continue to direct and urge localities to issue regulations on managing extra teaching and learning to enhance the responsibility of the government, while requiring educational institutions to effectively implement the General Education Program.

Implementing Directive No. 17/CT-TTg dated June 6, 2025 of the Prime Minister on teaching 2 sessions/day, the Ministry has directed schools to develop education plans clearly showing the plan to mobilize and use resources for implementation in qualified places.

The plan must specify the content, duration, and target students, and assign teachers appropriately and in accordance with regulations; focus on differentiating subjects, nurturing excellent students, reviewing for final year students, and supporting students who have not met the requirements according to Circular 29.

At the same time, the Ministry emphasized the need to innovate management work, strengthen inspection and supervision of the implementation of the General Education Program as well as management of extra teaching and learning, ensuring strict implementation of policies and laws.

Teachers and students of Tay Thanh High School, Ho Chi Minh City in a class (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).

The organization of the second session, including additional teaching for 3 subjects as prescribed, was carried out in accordance with Directive 17. The funding for the second session was mainly guaranteed from the state budget under the direction of the Prime Minister.

Socialized sources are implemented according to current regulations. In the coming time, the Ministry of Education and Training will coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and localities to develop specific mechanisms and policies on mobilizing funds for implementing 2-session teaching/day.

Maintain and pilot high school graduation exams on computers from 2027

Regarding the high school graduation exam, how is the roadmap for piloting computer-based exams from 2027 being prepared and will this exam continue to be maintained?

- The organization of the High School Graduation Exam to consider graduation recognition currently has very specific goals.

Firstly, assess the level of learners according to the requirements for developing qualities and capacities of the General Education Program, and use exam results to consider recognition of high school graduation.

Second, the results of the Exam are used as one of the bases for evaluating the teaching quality of general education institutions and the direction of educational management agencies.

Third, provide reliable data for higher education and vocational education institutions to use in enrollment.

At present, this is the only national exam for all students to assess the general output of high school, with a common assessment scale nationwide.

Therefore, it is necessary to maintain the organization to assess the level of general education standards, provide national data for research, construction, and adjustment of general education policies. At the same time, evaluate the quality of education in regions across the country.

The exam results are the output of high school and a source of reference information for universities and vocational training institutions to organize enrollment.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son inspects the exam work and encourages candidates at the 2025 High School Graduation Exam (Photo: Xuan Phu).

In preparation for the pilot implementation of computer-based high school graduation exams from 2027 under the direction of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Education and Training is focusing on implementing a number of key tasks, such as: developing a project to organize computer-based high school graduation exams, submitting it to the Prime Minister for approval in 2026; mobilizing experts to build a standardized exam question bank (expected to be applied from 2027).

At the same time, the Ministry also develops procedures and regulations for organizing computer-based exams, organizes training and seminars nationwide; and continues to coordinate with the Government Cipher Committee in transferring and receiving exam questions and other security aspects related to the exam.

Currently, the Ministry of Education and Training is preparing software systems to organize computer-based exams and testing computer-based exams in localities. It is expected that this school year, the test will be implemented for more than 100,000 students.

On the occasion of the new school year, does the Minister have any message to send to the entire industry and students?

- In the 2024-2025 school year, the entire sector has strived to overcome many difficulties and challenges and achieved many good results. On behalf of the leaders of the Ministry of Education and Training, I would like to acknowledge, commend and thank the outstanding efforts of the team of managers, teachers, staff and students.

The 2025-2026 school year is a very important school year, with many important tasks to be done and many opportunities for innovation. The keyword of this school year is "implementation". That is, focusing on effectively implementing the Party's policies and guidelines, the State's laws on education as well as the 10 key tasks and solutions for the 2025-2026 school year of the Education sector.

That is the way for the whole industry to inherit and promote the achievements of the past 80 years, overcome existing shortcomings and limitations, and open up new paths for Vietnamese education in the coming time.

Education is a career of a hundred years, requiring vision, perseverance, a spirit of fairness and the highest responsibility. I call on the entire industry, from managers to teachers, staff, and all students to prepare the best mindset, spirit and conditions, to unite and join forces, so that the new school year becomes a busy but joyful and successful year.

Thank you very much Minister!

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/dot-pha-chinh-sach-luong-thuong-va-nhung-thay-doi-lon-cua-nganh-giao-duc-20250904103027553.htm