According to Decree 73/2024 of the Government, from July 1, 2024, cadres, civil servants and public employees will have a bonus regime based on work performance and annual assessment and classification of task completion. The annual bonus fund is determined by 10% of the total salary fund. This is the first time that cadres, civil servants and public employees have this amount.

Currently, schools across the country are actively carrying out procedures for teachers to receive this amount of money before the Lunar New Year 2025. However, in Hanoi, many teachers are worried that they will not receive this bonus, because their work unit is classified as an autonomous group.

Teacher Nguyen Van Duong, Phu Xuyen A High School (Phu Xuyen District) said that in previous years, teachers in public schools did not receive Tet bonuses or 13th month salaries like many other professions. When Decree 73 was issued, all teachers were happy, expecting that this year would be the first Tet when teachers would receive bonuses of 4-7 million VND.

Before they could rejoice, the news that teachers at fully autonomous schools and units that have registered to order educational services will not be included in the group of subjects receiving additional income has left many teachers, including Mr. Duong, disappointed.

Mr. Duong and more than 500 other teachers wrote a petition letter to the city leaders for consideration. According to him, in Hanoi, there are currently 123 high schools under the management of the Department of Education and Training that are given financial autonomy.

In addition, 30 districts each have about 3-9 schools from kindergarten to secondary school selected for pilot autonomy. Thus, it is estimated that at least 200 schools and thousands of teachers in the whole city are affected.

Previously, in November 2023, the Hanoi Department of Education and Training issued a decision to grant financial autonomy to public schools under the Department for the period 2024-2025. The granting of autonomy is not essentially an increase in the schools' revenue but a change in the form of allocation from budget allocation to ordering.

"Teachers working in schools that have not implemented autonomy will enjoy benefits, while teachers in other units will not. Not to mention, the fact that some units that are piloting the ordering of educational service prices will not enjoy additional income will cause other units to no longer participate in ordering service prices," said Mr. Duong.

Ms. Do Thi Kim Oanh, a teacher at Ngoc Tao Secondary School (Phuc Tho District) also expressed disappointment when she received the notice that she was not eligible for the benefit because the school is a public service unit that ensures its own regular expenses.

"As an education official, working in a public service unit, I think I have the same obligations and rights as other education officials in public service units nationwide. Just because the school has been classified as a completely autonomous group, not being able to enjoy the same rights as other officials is completely unreasonable," said Ms. Oanh.

Therefore, Ms. Oanh requested the Department of Education and Training and competent authorities to review regulations on autonomy and guide the implementation of Decree 73 of the Government to ensure the rights of teachers. "In essence, schools have only been piloting autonomy for a few months, and are not yet fully autonomous in terms of financial revenue and expenditure. If teachers now lose their Tet bonuses, it will be very unfair," the female teacher emphasized.

According to records, non-autonomous schools in Hanoi currently have a plan to distribute Lunar New Year 2025 bonuses according to Decree 73 with three levels: completed, well completed and excellently completed tasks, commonly from 4 to 7 million VND per person.

A few weeks ago, about 1,800 teachers in Tra On district, Vinh Long province were also worried about losing their 2025 Lunar New Year bonus according to Decree 73. The reason was that the district's Department of Internal Affairs said that the Decree took effect from July 1, while the evaluation and classification of teachers took place in May and teachers at non-autonomous public high schools still received money.

After many recommendations from teachers, the Department of Education and Training of Tra On district proposed to higher levels and the Department of Finance agreed to pay the bonus.