Teachers to be permitted to tutor outside regular school hours: education ministry

The ministry is currently gathering feedback on a draft circular concerning tutoring and extra classes.

In a Saturday interview with VnExpress, Associate Professor Nguyen Xuan Thanh, head of the ministry’s Secondary Education Department, highlighted that tutoring fulfills a practical need for both teachers and students and argued that it should not be banned or viewed negatively.

The draft circular removes the existing rule that requires teachers to get the principal’s approval to tutor their students.

Currently, a public concern is that students are sometimes pressured into attending extra classes with their own teachers outside of school, even if they are reluctant.

According to the draft, teachers are permitted to tutor but must compile a list of students, inform the principal, and ensure that students are not coerced in any way. Additionally, teachers are prohibited from using exercises from tutoring sessions to evaluate students in regular school classes.

“This indicates that the ministry does not forbid teachers from tutoring their own students when it is genuinely desired by both the students and their parents,” Thanh explained. “Teachers can tutor their own students outside of school, but it must be a completely mutual and voluntary arrangement, with no coercion involved.”

However, Thanh noted that public school teachers are not permitted to run tutoring service businesses.