The country is currently facing a severe shortage of over 102,000 teachers in preschool and general education, according to staffing benchmarks.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) reports that this shortage has reached an alarming level, directly impacting the implementation of the national education curriculum. As of May 2025, Vietnam is short by 102,097 teachers in preschool and K-12 levels, and recent reports suggest that number could rise to over 120,000.

According to MOET, this ongoing shortage is overwhelming the existing teaching workforce, reducing the quality of teaching and learning. The situation is especially critical at the preschool level and in newly introduced subjects under the 2018 General Education Program.

A new provision in the draft National Assembly resolution on breakthrough mechanisms and policies for education and training proposes granting directors of provincial Departments of Education and Training the authority to recruit, receive, assign, transfer, and second teachers, administrators, and staff for preschool and general education institutions within their jurisdiction.

MOET highlights that the long-standing imbalance of teacher surplus and shortage has not been addressed, partly because recruitment and personnel assignments currently fall under the jurisdiction of district-level People's Committees for preschool, elementary, and lower secondary education. This has led to fragmented management: when one district has surplus teachers while another lacks them, transferring personnel becomes impossible due to jurisdictional limitations.

Additionally, since recruitment is not led by the education sector, mismatches occur between teacher specializations and the actual needs of schools. Furthermore, generic civil service exams are used for teacher hiring, which fail to properly assess pedagogical competencies of candidates.

The draft resolution also introduces numerous policies aimed at improving human resources in the education sector.

Under the proposed changes, the Government will regulate special incentive allowances in accordance with Resolution 71-NQ/TW. These include a minimum 70% allowance for preschool, general education, and vocational secondary teachers; 30% for school support staff; and 100% for teachers working with students with disabilities, in specialized institutions, and in disadvantaged areas.

Local authorities will be allowed to design flexible and competitive recruitment, retention, and compensation frameworks, independent of the standardized public service pay scales. This is intended to attract leading experts, international scholars, and Vietnamese intellectuals from abroad.

Thanh Hung