Pedagogy students must pay back tuition and living expenses if they do not pursue the profession.

The Ministry of Education and Training has just announced the Draft Decree Amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 116/2020/ND-CP dated September 25, 2020 of the Government regulating policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students.

Specifically, the Ministry of Education and Training proposes to amend and supplement Point b, Clause 1, Article 4 of Decree No. 116/2020/ND-CP as follows:

"Pedagogy students are supported by the state with 3.63 million VND/month to cover living expenses during their time studying at school. From the second year and the following years, pedagogy students with a poor average academic score or a poor training score will not be considered for support to cover living expenses. Teacher training institutions will consider supporting living expenses for pedagogy students by academic year."

Pedagogical students must pay tuition and living expenses if they do not follow the form 1. — Pedagogical students are supported with tuition and living expenses during their studies (illustrative photo - source: Pedagogical University 2).

Also in the draft, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to amend and supplement a number of contents specifying the responsibilities of agencies and units as follows:

Training institutions are responsible for guiding, monitoring and issuing refund notices to pedagogical students studying at training institutions who change majors, take a leave of absence or drop out of school.

Provincial People's Committees shall guide, monitor and issue notices of reimbursement of expenses for local resident pedagogical students who are in the following categories: Pedagogical students who have enjoyed the policy of not working in the education sector after 2 years from the date of the decision to recognize graduation; Pedagogical students who have enjoyed the policy and worked in the education sector but do not have enough working time as prescribed in Point a, Clause 2, Article 6 of Decree 116.

For pedagogical students who are subject to orders and tasks that are subject to reimbursement of expenses as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree 116, the ordering and tasking agency shall monitor, guide, and issue a notice to recover support expenses so that pedagogical students or their families can fully pay the amount of reimbursement as prescribed in Article 8 of Decree 116.

The State Treasury directs local treasury agencies to guide pedagogical students to pay the refund of support funds to the state budget according to regulations; annually report the total refund of pedagogical students to the Ministry of Education and Training and the Ministry of Finance .

For students, the draft clearly states: Within 30 days from the date of receiving the notice from the competent authority monitoring and guiding the issuance of a notice of fund recovery, students or their families must be responsible for paying the refund amount to the state treasury and sending a copy of the state budget payment document to the agency monitoring the recovery of the refund fund to complete the procedure of confirming the completion of the refund obligation.

The maximum period for performing the obligation to reimburse the support fund is 4 years, from the date the student teacher receives the notice of reimbursement.

In case the student or family is late in performing the reimbursement obligation beyond the prescribed time limit, they must pay the maximum interest rate applicable to demand deposits as prescribed by the State Bank of Vietnam for the late reimbursement amount.

In case the State Bank does not prescribe the maximum interest rate applicable to demand deposits, the interest rate applicable to demand deposits of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade at the time of performing the reimbursement obligation must be paid.

Pedagogical students must reimburse expenses according to regulations in Clause 1, Article 6 of Decree 116. If they are policy beneficiaries or have difficulties, based on the specific conditions and characteristics of pedagogical students, the Provincial People's Committee shall decide on the policy of exemption, reduction or cancellation of reimbursement expenses.

The amount recovered from the reimbursement costs of pedagogical students is paid into the state budget according to the current budget management hierarchy and according to the provisions of the State Budget Law on the management of recovered amounts paid into the budget.

If a pedagogical student or his/her family fails to fulfill the obligation to compensate, the competent authority shall monitor and issue a notice to recover the funds and have the right to file a lawsuit in court according to the provisions of law.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the above proposed amendments and supplements aim to: Ensure feasibility in fully recovering funds to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students not working in the education sector in accordance with regulations.

According to the draft Submission of the Ministry of Education and Training to the Government "On amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 116/2020/ND-CP dated September 25, 2020 of the Government regulating the policy of supporting tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students"; The Ministry of Education and Training proposes to study the amendments and supplements as follows:

The method of assigning tasks and ordering training for pedagogical students is still maintained. However, the regulation does not require localities to implement it, but depending on the conditions and needs of the localities, they can ensure funding for implementing orders and assigning tasks according to the provisions of Decree No. 32/2019/ND-CP dated April 10, 2020 of the Government regulating the assignment of tasks, ordering or bidding for the provision of public products and services using the state budget from regular expenditure sources (eliminating the bidding method in higher education to comply with the provisions of Decree 32).

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