Huyen Thanh, a staff member at a primary school in Luc Ngan district in Bac Giang, said she works as a stationary officer, in charge of paperwork and document storage, equipment, and sometimes as a medical worker, but she doesn’t receive any kind of allowance.

“I have been working for 17 years and receives VND6.659 million a month. I have to handle a lot of tasks such as cleaning offices, washing cups, delivering reports, watering plants, receiving dispatches and documents, preparing staff files, and cleaning dusty storage under the stairs. Sometimes I leave school for home in dirty clothes," Thanh complained.

Because of the modest pay from the official job, Thanh has to take a lot of extra jobs to earn extra money, including selling sweet potatoes, ready-made food and books online. She also takes care of day-boarding students.

According to Thanh, unlike teachers, school officers don’t have allowances. She hopes that the state will re-consider the policy and offer allowances to school clerks, about 20-25 percent of official salaries.

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Huong, a librarian at Moc Bac Secondary School in Duy Tien Town of Ha Nam province, said she has a bachelor’s degree and has worked for 14 years, but she can only receive over VND6 million a month after paying insurance policy premiums.

“Working 8 hours a day and undertaking a big workload, officers like us are ‘forgotten’ as we don’t have allowance under any form,” she complained. “In addition, I have to take many other administrative works."

“I have tried my best, but the salary is not high enough to cover basic needs, let alone saving money for old age and medical services,” she said.

Huong several times intended to quit the job because of the modest pay, but she changed her mind later as she regretted the years in her younger age spent on training.

However, she said if officers like her cannot get allowances, many employees will resign, because the salaries are smaller than that of a home helper.

Nguyen Cao Cuong, headmaster of Thai Thinh Secondary School in Hanoi, confirmed that school clerks also have to take a big workload, but the salaries are too modest.

That is why many schools find it difficult to recruit school clerks. “In large cities, it is not difficult to find a job with pay twice as much as pay for school clerks,” he said.

Hoang Thanh