The Ha Noi People’s Committee has urged districts to pay recently approved salary increases to pre-school teachers before the Tet holidays, starting February 14.

The Ministry of Education and Training’s statistics show that there are still 90,000 non-permanent pre-school teachers out of a national total of 170,000.

A recent survey on the implementation of the policy by the city’s Department of Education and Training showed that teachers at five out of seven outlying districts had not received the increase. They were Quoc Oai, Thuong Tin, Ung Hoa, Me Linh and Ba Vi.

Only pre-school schools in Phu Xuyen and My Duc districts had started the extra payments.

The inspection also revealed that more than 110 teachers in Me Linh District did not benefit from social and health insurance from 1995 to 2002 and another 332 teachers in Thuong Tin District had been similarly affected since 2002.

Vice chairman of Me Linh District People’s Committee Ha Huy Quang said the committee had reported these cases to the city authority.

He said local education offices would be required to pay the insurance for them while awaiting a final decision from the committee.

According to the vice chairman of Hoan Kiem District People’s Committee, Cao Bich Lan, there is a shortage of pre-school teachers in many districts, but the incentives to encourage them have vanished.

She said many teachers devoted a lot of time to local education, but were still no permanent staff with full benefits.

“Stable payments, social allowances and other benefits are the main reasons for many teachers to stay at public pre-schools. They would move to private schools if they didn’t receive these things,” Lan said.

The Ministry of Education and Training’s statistics show that there are still 90,000 non-permanent pre-school teachers out of a national total of 170,000.

These teachers get a monthly salary of between VND300,000 (US$15) and VND800,000 ($42), which is hardly enough for their daily needs.

Nguyen Thi Ky, a pre-school teacher in Cao Vien Commune, Thanh Oai District, said the monthly salary for non-permanent staff was about VND600,000 ($26) despite 10-hour working days.

“We take care of children and earn an additional money during weekends, but that’s not much - and (it’s also) irregular,” Ky said.

Vice-chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Ngo Thi Thanh Hang said the city would ask district-level authorities to upgrade more teachers to permanent status.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News