The Ministry of Education and Training announced this in a circular on July 30, outlining the roles and responsibilities of provincial education departments and local culture and social affairs offices.

Provincial departments can now establish school councils, replace council chairs, principals, and vice principals. They also have the authority to appoint principals and vice principals for public schools serving two or more communes or wards.

Based on provincial People's Committee regulations, departments can recruit, transfer, second, and reassign teachers and staff in public schools.

Local culture and social affairs offices will advise communal People's Committees on teacher recruitment plans and manage local staffing and teacher structures.

Students and teachers at Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School, TP HCM, September 2023. Photo: Quynh Tran

Students and teachers at Dinh Tien Hoang Primary School, TP HCM, September 2023. Photo: Quynh Tran

At a mid-July ministry workshop, Nguyen Van Phong, deputy director of TP HCM's Department of Education and Training, acknowledged the previous ambiguity surrounding teacher recruitment authority between the two administrative levels.

Government Decree 142 grants provincial departments the right to recruit and appoint teachers, staff, and employees in public educational institutions. However, the Law on Local Government Organization (Law 72/2025) makes communal People's Committee chairs responsible for recruiting, appointing, and managing public employees and officials in their areas.

Phong and Dinh Ngoc Son, deputy director of Quang Ninh's Department of Education and Training, advocated for giving provincial departments recruitment and transfer authority, as many communes and wards currently lack education officials and have few schools.

The National Assembly passed the Teachers' Law on June 16. A key provision increases autonomy for educational institutions and grants education departments teacher recruitment authority, previously held by the Department of Home Affairs and district-level People's Committees.

Vietnam has over 1.26 million teachers from preschool through 12th grade. Between 2022 and 2026, the education sector was allocated approximately 109,000 positions, with around 60,000 still unused.

Granting recruitment authority is seen as a solution to the teacher shortage.

Thanh Hang