Delegates worry about 'rich province, poor province' ideology causing unfairness in free tuition support

Delegate Nguyen Thi Yen - Photo: Quochoi.vn

On the afternoon of May 22, the National Assembly discussed in groups the draft resolution of the National Assembly on tuition exemption and support for preschool children, general education students, and people studying generaleducation programs at educational institutions in the national education system.

The central government should take care of ensuring fairness.

Agreeing on the need to issue a tuition-free mechanism for preschool children, high school students, and those studying general education programs, delegate Nguyen Thi Yen, Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the National Assembly Delegation of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, said that this policy demonstrates humanity in caring for future generations, especially the disadvantaged, remote areas, and private students.

However, regarding the implementation budget, the draft stipulates that the tuition support level is determined by the provincial People's Council. She questioned why the State does not take care of everything but instead assigns it to the provincial People's Council to determine, when the whole country has 63 provinces and cities, only 18 provinces and cities share the central budget.

With the viewpoint of "if you worry, worry about everything" because the actual support amount is more than 8,000 billion VND, the female delegate suggested that the Central Government should not be assigned to the People's Council to avoid the idea of ​​rich and poor provinces. As in Ba Ria - Vung Tau, the current support policy for public and private students is the same, giving money directly to families to facilitate implementation.

"Now the State takes care of tuition fees, local or central money is all state budget money, people's money. If tuition fees are exempted, then the tuition fees should be applied equally, all children should benefit equally. If the whole country is unified, then it needs to be uniform, fairness must be ensured, but just saying that rich provinces and poor provinces cannot implement it is not acceptable" - Ms. Yen expressed her opinion.

The budget increased by more than 8,200 billion VND, need to ensure fairness for children

Vice Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Thi Mai Hoa also said that the annual tuition fee may not be much, but for poor families, it is very important. For families with high incomes and a comfortable life, the tuition fee supported by the State "is not worth it, it does not change their income situation".

"High-income families are their business, children must be treated fairly, this is the responsibility of the State", Ms. Hoa said that to effectively use tuition fees, it is necessary to approach them in the direction of supporting children, instead of transferring them to educational institutions as the draft stipulates. On that basis, whether the family uses that money to pay for public or private schools is the family's business.

According to the Government 's estimate, the total state budget expenditure required to implement the policy is about VND30,600 billion (public sector VND28,700 billion; private sector VND1,900 billion). If this policy is not in place, from September 1, the state budget must still ensure VND22,400 billion to pay for students who are exempted from or do not have to pay tuition fees.

Thus, the amount of additional state budget that must be ensured when implementing the policy according to the National Assembly's resolution is 8,200 billion VND. This raises concerns that when the tuition support fee is decided by the People's Council, it will be difficult to ensure fairness when some provinces collect less, some collect more, and what is the responsibility of the central budget for disadvantaged provinces.

Therefore, Ms. Hoa believes that the Government will have to take action to ensure that children in mountainous, plain, urban or rural areas all have the most equitable access.

Delegate Le Tien Chau (Hai Phong) said that currently there are 10 localities that exempt tuition fees for students, of which Hai Phong is the locality that exempts tuition fees at all levels and recently exempted tuition fees for vocational training subjects in some priority fields and occupations.

"Based on inheriting what has been done, we will select a number of schools and levels of education to invest in spacious, well-equipped, standard and above-standard technical facilities, and select teachers who not only teach knowledge, skills, ethics, but also educate patriotism and love for the city, otherwise the students will all leave after graduation," said Mr. Chau.

Therefore, Mr. Chau also hopes that localities pay attention to this policy, especially those with "a little bit of conditions", and follow the general policy of the central government and the whole country to create consensus and support from voters for their children to enjoy good policies.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dai-bieu-lo-tu-tuong-tinh-giau-tinh-ngheo-gay-thieu-cong-bang-ho-tro-mien-hoc-phi-20250522183618939.htm