VietNamNet Bridge - A newly graduated preschool and primary school teacher receives an average VND3.2 million ($150) a month, far below the income of a taxi motorbike driver or a sidewalk ice tea seller.

Duong Cam Nai at Hoa My Kindergarten

A young preschool teacher receives VND3.2 million a month in salary, while a high school teacher or a university lecturer with 18-year experience receives VND8.5 million. A factory worker who finishes high school can earn more money than a teacher finishing university.

There are 39 officers and teachers at the Hoa My Kindergarten in Ha Dong district in Hanoi. On the payroll that the school’s headmaster Tran Thi Thanh Nhan showed to reporters, about 10 teachers had a monthly salary of around VND3 million. Nhan said these are young teachers who have been working for several years.

A newly graduated preschool and primary school teacher receives an average VND3.2 million a month, far below the income of a taxi motorbike driver or a sidewalk ice tea seller.

Duong Cam Nai is one. She began working there in 2012, after finishing Ha Tay Pedagogical Junior College. 

Nai said she had only VND1.6 million in the first month of working. Later, after passing the civil service examination, she got higher wages. After five years of work, she now receives VND3.3 million a month, including allowance.

Nai has to pay VND1 million to pay for her son, who goes to a state-owned primary school. The fuel for motorbike costs her VND100,000 a week. The remaining VND1.9 million is spent on diapers and milk for the second child. 

“I have to go to school without breakfast often. And I dare not make mobile calls unless it is very necessary. Luckily, I don’t have to spend much money on clothes, because I wear a uniform at work,” she said.

Nai said teaching at preschool is a hard job. As she has to be present at work at 7.15 am, she has to get up at 5.30 am to prepare breakfast for children before leaving home at 6.30 am. She never gets home sooner than 7 pm. 

Nai and her family have been living with parents-in-law. “My husband is a phone repairer. As our income is modest, we still need support from parents,” Nai explained. 

Nguyen Thi Hoai, an informatics teacher at a secondary school in Hanoi with 3-year experience, also receives VND3.2 million a month.

Despite the low wage, she has to travel 13 kilometers a day from home to school, where she has to undertake a lot of work – from teaching to organizing events, taking care of students and running the school’s website.