Regimes and pensions for principals, vice principals, and teachers when retiring early

Answering readers of Lao Dong Newspaper, Lawyer Diep Nang Binh - Head of Tinh thong luat Law Office (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) said that after the process of merging and rearranging educational institutions, teachers, principals, and vice principals who wish to retire early need to meet the conditions according to regulations to be resolved for early retirement and enjoy policies due to organizational structure arrangement.

Currently, the main basis is Decree 178/2024/ND-CP, which has been amended and supplemented by Decree 67/2025/ND-CP, applied to cadres, civil servants, and public employees, including public employees and leading and managing public employees affected by the arrangement of the organizational structure.

For schools, teachers are public employees; principals and vice-principals are public employees holding leadership and management positions. Therefore, in principle, they may be subject to policy consideration.

However, the subject of early retirement must be a person directly affected by the arrangement of the organizational structure, creating favorable conditions for arranging the number of cadres, civil servants, and public employees in leadership and management and being considered and decided by competent authorities.

Therefore, in cases of merging two or more schools leading to a reduction in the number of job positions, changes in organizational structure or no longer having enough leadership and management positions, teachers, principals or vice principals who are affected may be considered for early retirement under this policy.

Regarding age conditions, Decree 67/2025 currently stipulates the policy of early retirement for people who are still 2 years to 5 years old, or over 5 years to 10 years old compared to the retirement age according to Appendix I, II of Decree 135/2020/ND-CP, and must have enough time to pay compulsory social insurance to receive a pension.

Notably, according to Lawyer Diep Nang Binh, in cases that meet the conditions, the pension rate will not be deducted due to early retirement and will enjoy allowances according to the number of years of early retirement and the time of work contributing to social insurance.

Therefore, for a specific teacher or principal, vice principal, it is necessary to check 4 issues: whether the public employee is within the scope of Decree 178/2024 or not; whether the merger really affects the job position of that person or not; what age is left until retirement age; and whether they have met the conditions to receive a pension according to the Law on Social Insurance?

Only when these conditions are met simultaneously and decided by competent authorities according to the arrangement plan will there be a basis for enjoying policies, not just having a leave application is resolved," Lawyer Diep Nang Binh said.

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