Teachers with 40 years' experience will receive a seniority allowance equal to 40 percent of their salary, under a decree drafted by the Ministry of Education and Training.

The ministry would submit the draft to the Government this week, said Tran Kim Tu, deputy director of the ministry's human resources department.

The beneficiaries of the allowances are teachers at State schools with salaries based on Government's Decree 204/2004. This decree regulates monthly salaries for State employees, teachers administrating at State schools and teachers who retire after March 31, 1993.

Tu said professors and teachers who had worked for 40 years were mostly associate professors and doctors who would keep teaching until they were 70 years old.

Under the draft decree, teachers with five years' experience will be paid an allowance equal to 5 percent of their salary, to increase by 1 percentage point for each additional year.

"Funds for the allowances will come from school incomes and the State budget," said Tu.

The allowance will be paid monthly with the salary.

The seniority allowance for teachers was implemented in 1988, but was abrogated in 1993 and replaced by the allowance for present teachers.

The new decree, if approved, would have a major impact on teachers because the allowances would continue to be paid after retirement, on top of their pensions, said Tu, whereas the present regulations only provided allowances for working teachers.

Nguyen Xuan Dung, a retired deputy principal of the Thinh Quang Primary School in Hanoi, said that with 37 years of working experience she received a pension of 3 million VND (157 USD) a month.

While she was working, Dung had an allowance of 35 percent of her salary, but it had stopped when she retired in 2007.

"I will be happy if I get a seniority allowance on top of my pension because it will help reduce my financial difficulties," she said./.