MOET Minister Phung Xuan Nha said in order to improve education quality, it is necessary to upgrade teaching staff. In order to attract and retain good teachers, it is necessary to offer attractive remuneration policy. Meanwhile, the lifetime recruitment policy does not encourage teachers to improve.

“It is the right time to give schools autonomy in recruiting teachers and assessing their staff, and the right time to apply the labor contract policy on a trial basis,” Nha said.

He cited the resolution on education reform as saying that teachers must be assessed based on their contribution and capability, and that unqualified teachers must be dismissed to ensure high quality. 

Presenting the plan on before the National Assembly some days ago, Nha affirmed that the plan has been applauded by agencies and education establishments.

Under a plan drawn up by the Ministry of Education & Training (MOET), teachers will no longer be civil servants and will work under labor contracts.

NA deputies said it is necessary to think very carefully about the plan. Nguyen Lan Hieu from An Giang said he doesn’t agree with the idea to remove the civil service policy applied to the education and healthcare sectors.

“If you visit rural and remote areas and meet teachers and physicians who have been staying there for most of their life, you will understand that they stay not because of  love for their careers, but because of the belief that they are civil servants, the officers of the state apparatus,” he said.

When the civil service policy is no longer applied to teachers and healthcare officers, headmasters of schools and directors of hospitals will have the full right to employ or dismiss workers. 

If the heads of schools and hospitals don’t have high qualifications and morals, this will be just like ‘setting the fox to mind the chicken’.

“Removing the civil service mechanism in the education sector is not as important as reforming education,” he said. “Reforming education is a must as so many problems in education have been exposed.”

Meanwhile, many university students have expressed their concern that the removal of the civil service policy would lead to higher training costs and tuition.

Under MOET’s plan, the removal would be applied first to several universities and high schools. 

The application of the labor contract policy will help reduce the state’s budget on education and training. 

However, as the state budget is cut, tuition will have to be raised.