On the morning of November 9, discussing the draft Law on Teachers at the National Assembly's group, Professor Dr. Hoang Van Cuong affirmed: "Teaching is a special profession, the subject of impact is people, the product of education is knowledge and human qualities. Therefore, the attitude and behavior of teachers in work as well as in society must also be special and different."

"Teachers must receive training after at least 3-5 years"

Accordingly, in addition to the 8 points regulating the obligations of teachers in Article 9, Professor Hoang Van Cuong suggested that it is necessary to supplement and emphasize that teachers must not only be exemplary and set an example in professional activities but also need to be exemplary in community activities and standards in social behavior.

In particular, teachers must not only respect, treat fairly, and protect the rights of students, but also have the responsibility to motivate, encourage, and inspire students to develop their own creative thinking. It is necessary to respect students' different opinions, as long as they do not violate the ethical and legal standards of students.

Mr. Cuong emphasized that, regarding teachers' rights, it is not that teachers have the right to summer vacation, but "summer vacation is not for playing" but must be associated with the task of participating in training, fostering and improving teachers' qualifications, participating in scientific research or participating in community activities appropriate to their expertise.

"Teachers, especially university lecturers, must have the responsibility of scientific research. It can be seen that most of the Nobel Prizes in the world are at universities," he cited.

However, according to Mr. Hoang Van Cuong, 90% of international articles in Vietnam are from university lecturers while universities only receive 6.7% of scientific research funding. Therefore, Article 28 of the Teacher Policy must be given priority in receiving scientific research topics. Teachers' scientific research and technology transfer topics must be given preferential treatment in terms of personal income tax.

Next, teachers must be responsible for participating in training, fostering and self-improvement to improve their qualifications. Knowledge must always be new and updated to keep up with the development of new scientific and technological achievements, not just teaching according to the book, testing according to the book. This is the basis for elimination and purification.

"From there, I propose the responsibility of the organizing agencies for the issue of training and fostering teachers. It is mandatory to have a fund for training and fostering teachers. Every teacher after at least 3-5 years must be trained," Mr. Cuong proposed.

Teachers selling insurance and soft drinks is not appropriate.

Professor Dr. Hoang Van Cuong said he agreed with the 6 points that teachers are not allowed to do and the 3 points that teachers are not allowed to do in Article 11.

However, he added, teachers are not allowed to participate in or directly conduct business in certain activities according to local regulations and the school or workplace. Because some business activities are very popular but are not suitable for teachers, such as selling insurance to parents, selling refreshments in front of the school gate, etc.

The regulation "prohibiting forcing students to participate in extra classes in any form" is not appropriate. In order to implement the policy of not letting students repeat a grade, many responsible teachers often have to ask students with poor academic performance to stay behind at the end of class to tutor them with the sole motive of helping students grasp the knowledge and keep up with their friends. According to Mr. Cuong, this is not a motive for making money, it is not bad and should be encouraged. Therefore, this point must be changed to "prohibiting forcing students to participate in extra classes for profit in any form".

Agreeing with the regulation that "information must not be made public during the inspection, examination, and handling of violations by teachers without an official conclusion from the competent authority", according to Professor Hoang Van Cuong, there must also be a regulation prohibiting acts of disrespect and insult to teachers.

"When going out into society, teachers sometimes have to maintain their dignity. If someone says something, never dare to debate or argue. There are cases where not arguing back is a problem, but for teachers, arguing back is a problem," said Mr. Cuong.

Delegates also said that teachers are the priority group to buy social housing, not just low-income people, to ensure they have a place to live and work with peace of mind.

One of the new points of the draft Law on Teachers is to give the education sector the initiative in recruiting and using teachers. Professor Dr. Hoang Van Cuong assessed this as a "very good" regulation. According to him, if schools do not have the initiative to recruit and assign anyone, it is not appropriate.

According to Prof. Dr. Hoang Van Cuong, the Law needs to stipulate that when teachers are appointed as managers, if they participate in teaching and fulfill their duties, they will still receive allowances for teachers. Encourage teachers to be good at management, and at the same time encourage managers to directly teach, this is to help grasp the breath of teachers' lives and the minds of students.