Tuition exemption and support policy: Need to study forms to ensure fairness

Overview of the National Assembly session on the morning of May 22. (Source: National Assembly)

On the morning of May 22, under the direction of Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Khac Dinh, the National Assembly listened to the presentation of the Proposal and the Verification Report on the National Assembly's draft Resolution on tuition exemption and support for preschool children, general education students, and students of generaleducation programs at educational institutions in the national education system.

People are the direct beneficiaries of the policy.

Presenting the Report, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son said that, implementing the Conclusion of the Politburo in Official Dispatch No. 13594-CV/VPTW of the Central Party Office on exempting tuition fees for preschool and secondary school students in the public school system, on the basis of reviewing current regulations, in addition to the subjects exempted, reduced, supported, and not having to pay tuition fees as prescribed by law, the Resolution adds subjects exempted, supported, and not having to pay tuition fees.

Specifically: Preschool children under 5 years old studying at educational institutions; high school students, people studying general education programs at educational institutions. The addition of this exemption and tuition support category demonstrates the superiority of the regime, ensuring consistent implementation of policies, fairness in access to education; encouraging the development of non-public education, and enhancing the socialization of education. At the same time, this provision is consistent with the Constitution, the Law on Education and the Politburo's policies.

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Regarding the impact of the policy, Minister Nguyen Kim Son said that according to statistics for the 2023-2024 school year, the country currently has 23.2 million students. The total funding requirement calculated based on the average minimum tuition fee of the 3 regions (urban, rural, mountainous) in Decree No. 81/2021/ND-CP and Decree No. 97/2023/ND-CP is about 30.6 trillion VND. The specific budget level to be guaranteed depends on the tuition fee level of each province and centrally-run city under the authority of the Provincial People's Council.

Of which, the total state budget that has been and will be exempted, not collected, and supported tuition fees from September 1, 2025 according to current regulations is 22.4 trillion VND. The estimated state budget amount that must be supplemented when the National Assembly Resolution is issued is 8.2 trillion VND.

Also according to Minister Nguyen Kim Son, people are the direct beneficiaries of the policy, contributing to reducing the economic burden on poor families; to ensure the policy implementation time from the 2025-2026 school year (starting from September 2025) according to the Conclusion of the Politburo, the Government submitted to the National Assembly for consideration, approval and promulgation of the Resolution at this 9th Session.

Presenting the Inspection Report, Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said that the Committee agreed with the necessity of issuing the Resolution, and emphasized that the issuance of the Resolution aims to promptly institutionalize the Party's policy, demonstrate the superiority of the regime, ensure fairness in access to education and the State's responsibility towards learners, care for the young generation and ensure social security.

The draft Resolution dossier basically meets the requirements under the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents, including the Submission and the accompanying statistical appendix. The Committee requests that the drafting agency review the content of the Submission on funding for exemption and support of tuition fees for learners of the General Education Program at continuing education institutions and other educational institutions with the content of the statistical appendixes attached to the Submission to ensure consistency.

The Committee on Culture and Society basically agrees with the policy of exempting and supporting tuition fees for preschool children and public, private and public secondary school students in the draft Resolution.

Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son presented the Report. (Source: National Assembly)

Aiming to provide direct tuition support to students

On the same afternoon, the National Assembly discussed in groups the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on universalizing preschool education for preschool children from 3 to 5 years old and the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on exemption and support of tuition fees for preschool children, general education students, and people studying general education programs at educational institutions in the national education system.

Discussing the draft Resolution, National Assembly delegate Ta Van Ha (Quang Nam) affirmed: "This is a correct policy, with time for careful research and demonstrating the superiority of caring for the future generations of our country."

Recently, Mr. Ta Van Ha said that he has overcome difficulties and problems such as preschool groups suffering from violence, poor learning conditions from managers, and direct teachers not being trained...

Regarding the policy of tuition exemption and support, delegates raised the issue of needing to study a fair form of support. Currently, the draft resolution proposes support to educational and training institutions (regardless of public or private schools) or a form of support based on the number of students.

Regarding this, delegates said that it is necessary to aim at directly supporting tuition fees for students to ensure fairness.

Meanwhile, National Assembly delegate Nguyen Quoc Luan (Yen Bai) agreed to issue a Resolution on universalizing preschool education for children from 3 to 5 years old and a Resolution on exempting and supporting tuition fees to care for the younger generation in a comprehensive and adequate manner.

Regarding policy mechanisms and implementation, delegates expressed that the regulations in the draft are not comprehensive and do not fully reflect the difficulties and shortcomings of education in mountainous areas in general, and preschool education in mountainous areas in particular.

In fact, preschool facilities in these areas, especially in mountainous areas, are still lacking and conditions are difficult. Recruiting staff and teachers for these facilities is very difficult, with some localities lacking up to 200 teachers.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Luan said: "In the highlands, there is no source of recruitment, and in many cases, even if we can recruit people, we cannot keep teachers with the school for a long time."

Regarding the characteristics of preschool education, delegate Nguyen Quoc Luan said that mountainous, coastal and island areas are extremely difficult. Not only for teachers, some localities have issued resolutions to use provincial budget money to support lunch money for children who are not eligible for lunch money according to Decree No. 45.

Therefore, there should be special preferential policies in investment in facilities, training, and recruitment of staff and teachers at these facilities. Therefore, the provisions in the draft resolution are unclear and incomplete. Therefore, delegates recommend that there should be clearly stated preferential policies and mechanisms to serve as a basis for universalizing preschool education.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/chinh-sach-ve-mien-ho-tro-hoc-phi-can-nghien-cuu-hinh-thuc-bao-dam-tinh-cong-bang-315186.html