Teachers’ salaries are currently paid under Government Decree 204/2004/ND-CP and in accordance with the professional and technical salary scale applied to public employees in state institutions, MOET said. The starting salary corresponds to their level of education (category B for intermediate level (2-year training), A0 for junior college level (3-year training), and A1, A2, A3 (for university level and above).

In addition to base salary, teachers receive several allowances such as seniority allowance, professional preference allowance for those directly teaching at different levels and subjects, and regional allowances ranging from 25 to 70 percent.

Salary, allowances remain inadequate

However, MOET noted there are shortcomings in the current salary, allowance, and incentive policies for teachers.

First, the long-standing principle that teachers’ salaries should be ranked highest among public service salary scales has not yet been realized.

The salary system for public employees has 10 categories ranked from lowest to highest: C1, C2, C3, B, A0, A1, A2.2, A2.1, A3.2, and A3.1 (each with up to 12 levels, depending on position).

But in reality, only three teaching titles qualify for A3-level salaries (A3.2, and A3.1 - the two highest tiers), including senior university lecturers (professor and associate professor), senior vocational education lecturers, and senior vocational teachers, representing just about 1.17 percent of all teachers. In contrast, in other sectors, 10 percent of public employees enjoy A3 level.

MOET emphasized that the responsibilities of all rank-1 public employees are similar to those of senior teachers (rank I): developing teaching materials, mentoring lower-ranked staff, serving on competition juries, and leading professional innovation, without the policy-making duties like civil servants.

In reality, most teachers (except college, university, and vocational instructors) are ranked lower than professionals in other fields such as healthcare (doctors, pharmacists), construction (architects, assessors), transport (engineers, managers), justice (record officers), culture and sports (directors, artists, coaches), science and technology (researchers, engineers), and information and communications (journalists, translators, television directors).

Moreover, Point c, Clause 1, Article 23 of the Law on Teachers states that “preschool teachers shall receive higher salaries and allowances than those working under normal conditions.” Yet preschool teachers currently receive the lowest pay among all teaching ranks (A0, A1, A2) and among the lowest compared with other public sector positions.

MOET also identified structural issues in the current salary framework, noting that uniform salary rules across all professions fail to reflect differences in job complexity.

Under the current “category–rank–level” system, pay depends mainly on job title, education level, and seniority. The gap between entry-level and long-serving teachers is largely due to seniority coefficients, even though their core teaching duties are similar.

More teachers quit their jobs

MOET reported that many localities still face teacher shortages, especially preschool and primary teachers in public schools, because student numbers are increasing while staffing levels must comply with downsizing regulations. 

Shortages are especially serious in certain subjects like IT, foreign languages, and arts, as graduates in these fields often choose higher-paying jobs elsewhere. Remote, ethnic minority, border, island, and economically disadvantaged areas also face chronic teacher shortages.

As of April 2025, Vietnam lacked 102,097 teachers in preschool and general education compared with MOET’s staffing standards (including 30,057 in preschools, 22,255 in primary schools, 30,702 in secondary, and 19,083 in high schools).

Between August 2020 and August 2023, more than 40,000 teachers nationwide quit or switched jobs, with 60 percent of them under age 35. From August 2023 to April 2024 alone, 7,215 teachers left the profession, including around 1,600 preschool teachers (22 percent of the total) and decreasing by education levels from low to high.

In addition, newly entered teachers in the first five working years only receive an income comprising of salary and preference allowance, with no seniority allowance, so their total income is still low. Thus, there is still a large gap compared to long-serving teachers despite basically the same tasks. 

Specifically, the lowest salary level of kindergarten teachers is about VND6.6 million, primary teachers about VND7.3 million, and secondary, high school, pre-university teachers about VND7.1 million. The highest teacher salary levels, respectively, are VND20.6 million, VND24.6 million, VND28.5 million and VND30.5 million. 

The lowest teacher salaries are lower than the 2024 average worker salary of VND7.7 million.

Income not ensuring sufficient living is also one of the causes leading to the increasing trend of teacher resignations in recent years, especially for teachers under 35 years old.

Thuy Nga