Currently, teachers have to attend an exam to be eligible to apply for an in-grade promotion and salary increases.

Nguyen Van Duong, a teacher of Phu Xuyen A High School, said a professional title promotion is recognition of teachers’ achievements and contributions to the development of the educational sector, but, the implementation varies in different localities. 

In some provinces, teachers have to attend the exams to get an in-grade promotion, while in other localities they don’t.

“I have learned that teachers in Bac Giang, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Hung Yen, Ninh Binh and Hai Duong don’t have to attend the exam. In Hanoi, secondary school teachers also don’t have to sit the exams,” he said.

Duong said while his friends who studied and graduated from the same university have the same length of service and all work for public schools, they enjoy different promotion mechanisms.

“While my friends in other provinces can get in-grade promotion without having to attend any exam, I have to go through a lot of steps to get promotion,” he complained.

It is estimated that nearly 50 percent of the 2,500 teachers who signed the letter to agencies are the teachers born in 1960s or 1970s.

Duong believes that the older teachers are at a disadvantage if they have to attend the exam.

“Many of them are recognized as excellent teachers and have ‘emulation warrior’ titles. However, as they are older, their English skills may be getting worse and they may fail the exam. If so, their efforts and achievements for many years will have been in vain,” Duong said.

Le Duc Duong from Cao Ba Quat High School in Gia Lam district thinks there is no need to organize exams to assess teachers’ capability.

“The most important criterion used to assess teachers’ abilities and give them a promotion is their contributions to the educational sector. It would be better not to put pressure on teachers with exams,” he said.

He said that the organization of an exam for thousands of teachers in the city would cost a lot of money, while the preparation for the exam would also take a lot of time. 

Meanwhile, such an exam doesn’t bring any core value to the educational sector.

The time, effort and money budgeted for organizing such an exam would be more useful spent on refresher training courses and other retraining projects.

Thuy Nga