Get feedback on working regime of teachers in continuing education institutions

The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced a draft Circular regulating the working regime for teachers at continuing education institutions to widely collect comments from relevant agencies, organizations and individuals.

Class time at the Vocational Education Center - Continuing Education Center of Lang Chanh district (Thanh Hoa). Photo: Nguyen Nam/VNA

The draft Circular consists of 3 chapters and 12 articles, detailing the implementation of the Law on Teachers, which was recently passed by the 15th National Assembly at the 9th Session on June 16, 2025. It stipulates the working regime for teachers teaching at continuing education centers and vocational education - continuing education centers, including: working time, annual leave, teaching period norms, reduction of teaching period norms and conversion of other activities into teaching periods.

Basically, the principle of determining the working regime of teachers of continuing education institutions ensures consistency with the regulations for general education and university preparatory teachers in Circular No. 05/2025/TT-BGDDT. However, the difference with general education teachers is that: general education teachers do not hold more than 2 concurrent tasks, but teachers of continuing education institutions are not limited to 2 concurrent tasks due to the nature of professional activities which are very different from those of general education teachers (having to manage many classes with different scales and forms of study; having to carry out continuous enrollment work; performing the tasks of departments; flexible teaching and education activities according to the learning needs of learners...).

To ensure the teaching quality of teachers in continuing education institutions, the draft Circular stipulates that the total number of reduced and converted periods for teachers' concurrent duties in 1 week must not exceed 50% of the average number of teaching periods in 1 week.

Regulations on working hours of continuing education teachers must be consistent with regulations on teaching time in continuing education and vocational education programs; and must ensure stability of current regulations on teaching, studying and practicing time at enterprises for teachers teaching at the elementary level.

Due to the nature of the summer vacation not being fixed at 8 weeks like in preschools, general education, and teachers of continuing education institutions often have to perform many other tasks besides teaching, teachers' working hours are not fixed in a fixed number of weeks to allow for flexibility in assigning and arranging work.

The draft Circular also stipulates that teachers' summer vacations are implemented according to the rules and regulations of the continuing education institution, with a maximum of 8 weeks and a minimum of 4 weeks. During the summer vacation, teachers participate in training and development according to the requirements of their job position, participate in high school graduation exams, enroll students, teach classes according to the training and development program, and participate in educational activities of the center when summoned.

The draft Circular does not stipulate summer vacation time for directors and deputy directors as it does for principals and deputy principals of general schools due to the nature of the center's work, which involves many educational and training activities during the students' summer vacation. However, allowing the center to arrange summer vacation time for teachers holding the position of educational institution management staff must be stipulated in the center's internal rules and regulations and must flexibly arrange summer vacation time to ensure that the center's activities take place normally and complete tasks assigned by competent authorities.

The draft Circular also stipulates that the average number of teaching periods per week for teachers teaching continuing education programs is 17 periods to ensure consistency, due to the fact that teachers teach both the Junior High School program and the High School program. In addition, through surveys at continuing education facilities, mainly centers teach the High School program; students studying the Junior High School continuing education program are very few, some centers do not have any.

In addition, to implement the policy of merging vocational education centers and continuing education centers into vocational secondary schools equivalent to high schools under the Department of Education and Training to provide public services in inter-ward and commune areas (according to Official Dispatch No. 59-CV/BCĐ dated September 12, 2025 of the Central Steering Committee on summarizing Resolution 18-NQ/TW), the Ministry of Education and Training is researching and proposing competent authorities to issue legal documents as a basis to guide localities in implementation. When the legal basis system is complete, the Ministry will adjust the provisions of the Circular on working regime for teachers of continuing education institutions to suit the new model.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/giao-duc/lay-y-kien-gop-y-ve-che-do-lam-viec-cua-giao-vien-co-so-giao-duc-thuong-xuyen-20250925083120676.htm