VietNamNet Bridge – State owned school teachers may feel affected with the modest Tet bonuses of several hundreds of thousands of dong, while their colleagues at international schools can get up to thousands of dollars.

The highest Tet bonus in Hanoi, VND2.4 million, is expected to be given to the teachers of a secondary school in Thanh Xuan district.

Meanwhile, Le Thi Oanh, Headmaster of the Hanoi – Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, the most reputable school in Hanoi, said every teacher of the school would receive VND500,000 and a bunch of flowers.

Oanh said unlike private schools, state owned schools, which follow the bookkeeping mechanism set by the Ministry of Finance, do not have the funds to reward teachers. The school’s teachers do not expect too much on Tet bonuses, because they know the bonuses would be no more than VND300,000-500,000.

Nguyen Thi Thanh from the Bich Hoa Secondary School in Thanh Oai district confirmed that she would get VND500,000 like in the previous years. Those, who got excellent achievements in 2013, would get an additional sum of VND50,000 or VND100,000.

Thanh went on to say that the teachers of the schools dare not expect any gifts from the students’ parents like the other “schools of the rich”. Bich Hoa is located in a suburb area, where the intellectual standards of people remain low and the economic conditions are very poor. The local people live from hand to mouth, let alone the saving money for buying gifts for teachers.

Nguyen Thi Thuy from the Ta Thanh Oai Primary School in Thanh Tri district said she expects VND500,000 and a small gift.

“You should not expect more,” Thuy said, adding that she receives the same thing over the last 10 years since she began working there.

However, Thuy said she feels happy about it, because she is luckier than many other colleagues in rural and remote areas.

However, Thuy said teachers all still feel sad when comparing with the workers in other sectors. Like other civil servants and workers in enterprises, teachers have been devoting themselves to the social development.

Teaching has been praised as the noble career because it prepares the next generations for the country. However, the modest income proves to be undeserved to the noble career.

State owned schools’ teachers may feel jealous of their colleagues at private and international schools, who have much higher bonuses.

Huynh Lan Anh from North America School said the lowest bonus level would be VND5 million, while the highest would be tens of millions of dong. Teachers would get as they devoted in 2013.

A teacher from ACG Vietnam International School in district 2 revealed that she receives bonuses for both New Year and Lunar New Year (Tet) every year, which is a “relatively big sum of money.”

At Asia International School, the highest bonus level one can expect is VND12 million.

Some state owned schools in HCM City have promised “satisfactory” Tet bonuses for their staff. The money would be extracted from the schools’ saving funds, the bonuses and the donations from agencies and businessmen.

Compiled by C. V