'Not exempting tuition fees but generating many other fees'

Delegate Nguyen Thi Ha ( Bac Ninh delegation) expressed her opinion at the discussion session of the draft resolution on exempting tuition fees for students from preschool to high school nationwide from the 2025-2026 school year, on the afternoon of May 22.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Ha (Bac Ninh delegation)

PHOTO: GIA HAN

Expressing support for the policy of exempting tuition fees for public students nationwide, while supporting tuition fees for students at private and non-public schools (for kindergartens), delegate Nguyen Thi Ha suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training should have strict guidelines on the list and ceiling of service fees and agreements in schools, along with a monitoring mechanism by parents and local authorities.

"Avoid taking advantage of other fees, even if they are voluntary, from parents," said Ms. Ha, adding that this is the only way to ensure that students receive real policies. "It's not like exempting one official fee but incurring many other fees," Ms. Ha emphasized.

The Bac Ninh delegation also requested clarification of the level and mechanism of "tuition support" for non-public institutions. According to the delegate, the draft resolution only stops at the principle of support, but does not specify the level of support and in what form.

Ms. Ha analyzed that if the State supports, it can be understood that the budget will provide a sum of money to compensate for part or all of the tuition that students would have to pay at private schools. However, in reality, tuition fees at non-public schools are very diverse and higher than at public schools.

From there, Ms. Ha proposed that the resolution assign the Government to clearly stipulate the level of tuition support for non-public students. It is possible to stipulate that the support level is not lower than the ceiling of local public tuition fees or the average state budget expenditure for a public student.

At the same time, the Bac Ninh delegation proposed to clarify the form of support: whether the budget will be directly allocated to non-publiceducational institutions according to the number of students, or allocated to localities, or refunded to parents.

"A transparent implementation method will help avoid negativity and ensure that support money reaches the right recipients and purposes," said Ms. Ha.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Lan Anh (Lao Cai delegation)

PHOTO: GIA HAN

Clearly define the level of non-public tuition support to ensure fairness

Similarly, delegate Nguyen Thi Lan Anh (Lao Cai delegation) said that the draft only assigned the provincial People's Council to decide on the support level, but did not clearly stipulate the support principles and criteria for determining the support level, which could lead to large differences between localities.

Some provinces with good budget conditions will provide high support, while disadvantaged provinces may provide very low support or not have enough resources to implement, affecting the rights of learners.

Delegates from Lao Cai proposed to supplement regulations on principles for determining support levels, ensuring fairness, reasonableness and priority for remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.

Regarding the payment method, Ms. Lan Anh said that the National Assembly Standing Committee proposed a direct payment plan for non-public students.

"I am a little concerned. If the city grants directly to students, it will be very convenient, and sometimes it can be transferred to parents very conveniently. However, for our disadvantaged areas and ethnic minorities, it will really cause difficulties and also create administrative procedures," the delegate said.

Regarding funding for implementing the tuition exemption policy, the draft resolution stipulates that the central budget supports local budgets that have not yet balanced their budgets. Delegate Nguyen Thi Ha said that it is necessary to stipulate more clearly to ensure fair support among localities.

Accordingly, she suggested that for provinces that balance their own budgets, the provincial People's Council should issue a special resolution with the principle of not being lower than the support level for public school students.

As for provinces that have not balanced their budgets, have difficulty in budget allocation, and still depend on the central budget, they do not need to issue a special resolution and the central government will stipulate in this resolution that the central government will pay.

According to delegate Nguyen Thi Lan (Hanoi delegation), it is necessary to carefully assess the budget balancing capacity of localities, especially provinces that have not yet balanced their budgets. The government needs to calculate compensation to ensure resources for these localities to avoid cases where good policies are not implemented but there are not enough resources, leading to delays or uneven implementation.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/khong-de-mien-hoc-phi-nhung-lai-phat-sinh-nhieu-khoan-thu-khac-185250522160117898.htm