No tuition increase, strict control of textbook prices

The Ministry of Education and Training will continue to maintain and not increase the price of educational services for the 2022-2023 school year; strictly control textbook prices, ensuring that every student has access to textbooks at reasonable prices.

Conducting textbook price declaration very strictly

Proposing price management measures for the last months of 2022, the Ministry of Finance proposed that for goods and services priced by the State, no price adjustment should be considered for now, but prices should be kept stable to ensure general inflation control, contributing to supporting businesses and people. Adjusting prices of goods according to the roadmap must carefully assess the impact on CPI to ensure room for inflation control throughout the year.

Given the developments and forecasts of gasoline prices in the last months of the year, which show that they will impact the CPI, the adjustment of educational service prices needs to be carefully calculated. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education and Training submit to the Government a plan to manage educational service prices, ensuring the goal of controlling inflation.

Be extremely cautious when increasing tuition fees; ensure all students have access to textbooks at reasonable prices. Photo: VGP/Quang Thuong

Explaining why the price of new textbooks is higher than that of old textbooks, Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong said that, in addition to the number of printed copies, it is also related to the mechanism for forming the price.

Previously, the cost of compilation and printing was covered by the State, but now it is socialized, publishers pay for compilation and printing, so the cost is higher. The number of official books compared to old books is not higher, even the total number of books from Primary to Secondary school is 2 books less.

During the process of not amending the Law on Prices, the Ministry of Education and Training has coordinated with the Ministry of Finance to strictly declare the prices of enterprises for this item. Each time the price is declared, the Department of Price Management (Ministry of Finance) carefully assesses it. After each declaration, the price of each set of books is reduced by 5-15%.

The Ministry of Education and Training has also issued a document directing specialized units to research and develop technical standards for textbooks. This is being done urgently because the textbook compilation roadmap is almost completed.

No increase in education service prices for the 2022-2023 school year

Regarding tuition fees, Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong said that according to Decree 81/2021/ND-CP (regulations on the mechanism for collecting and managing tuition fees for educational institutions in the national education system and policies on tuition exemption and reduction, support for learning expenses; service prices in the field of education and training), the Government stipulates the tuition fee framework and ceiling for each locality, and the unit decides on the specific tuition fee level for each school year within the scope of the tuition fee framework and ceiling prescribed by the Government.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry has consulted and received the Government's agreement to keep tuition fees unchanged for the 2021-2022 school year. However, starting from September of the 2022-2023 school year, there will be a roadmap to increase tuition fees according to regulations. With this roadmap, public preschool education will increase by about 75%, and university education will increase by about 12.5%.

According to estimates by the General Statistics Office, the adjustment in education service prices will increase the average CPI nationwide in 2022 by about 0.55-1.05% and tuition fees for the 2022-2023 school year are expected to increase the CPI by 1.5-2.8%.

Implementing the Resolution of the Government meeting in May, the Government assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to review and assess the impact of increasing prices of educational services and textbooks to report to the Government next month.

The Ministry of Education and Training agrees with the Ministry of Finance's solution to continue to maintain and not increase educational service prices for the 2022-2023 school year.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Vu Thi Mai, textbook prices are currently managed according to the provisions of the Law on Education and the Law on Prices. Accordingly, textbook prices are on the list of items subject to price declaration, not on the list of items subject to price determination and price stabilization by the State.

In the 2022-2023 school year, the Ministry of Finance has coordinated with the Ministry of Education and Training to receive and declare textbook prices and send documents requesting units to review and implement cost-saving measures (especially some costs such as management costs, book promotion costs, profits, etc.) to continue to control inflation, ensure social security, and share with consumers.

Up to now, units have declared adjustments to reduce textbook prices, with common reductions ranging from 5-15% depending on the book.

The reason why the total price of the new textbook set is higher than the old one is mainly due to the difference in book size, number of books, and number of printed colors of the books in the new set being higher than the old set, so the cost of raw materials for the new books is higher.

In addition, the price level of input factors such as raw materials, labor costs, etc. at the present time are all higher than before; at the same time, some costs such as manuscript costs, first-time royalties, etc. are not supported by the State budget and are included in the cost of textbooks.

Some new costs such as advertising, book introduction, profit... are included in the price of textbooks according to the law on prices and corporate income tax (old books do not have this cost).

Put textbooks on the list of state-priced goods

Currently, the Ministry of Finance is organizing a wide consultation on the draft Law on Prices (amended), has included textbooks in the list of goods priced by the State and assigned the Ministry of Education and Training to regulate textbook prices in conjunction with technical and professional requirements to have reasonable prices and meet professional requirements in education and training.

"While waiting for the Law on Prices (amended) to be passed by the National Assembly and take effect, the Ministry of Finance will continue to coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training to receive and closely review price declaration documents according to legal regulations to stabilize textbook prices," Deputy Minister Vu Thi Mai affirmed.

Ms. Vu Thi Mai also said that for the 2022-2023 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training, as the agency in charge of tuition fees and prices of educational and training services, issued Official Dispatch No. 2153/BGDĐT-KHTC dated May 24, 2022 requesting ministries, branches, People's Committees of provinces and cities and educational institutions to develop appropriate tuition fees and tuition fee increase roadmaps, contributing to price stabilization and ensuring social security, having policies to support exemption, reduction, and extension of payment time for tuition fees and other fees, and support textbooks for students in difficult circumstances, remote areas, mountainous and island areas; at the same time, strengthen inspection, supervision, and transparent disclosure of information on educational service prices, textbook prices, educational supplies and equipment.

General Director of the General Statistics Office Nguyen Thi Huong informed that the price of educational services in the CPI calculation weight is very high (5.45%) and is expected to increase by 10-19%. Currently, due to the impact of the epidemic, there is still support. The problem is that when the State no longer supports, there must be a solution so that provinces and cities do not simultaneously increase the price of educational services.

Ms. Huong also said that textbook prices account for a very low proportion, only 0.3% of the CPI, and currently textbook prices can also be considered for further increase, but the roadmap needs to be specific.

Be extremely cautious when raising tuition fees; ensure all students have access to textbooks at reasonable prices

Emphasizing the need to be extremely cautious when increasing tuition fees, public educational institutions need to carefully calculate the impact and have a roadmap, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai stated that according to calculations by the Ministry of Education and Training, the price of educational services in the 2022-2030 school year is expected to increase by 40-90%, the impact on the general CPI in 2022 from 0.55-1.05% is very large.

Together with the impact of gasoline prices and some other commodities, it will be very difficult for management. Considering that increasing the price of educational services is not the final solution, the Deputy Prime Minister suggested that the Ministry of Education and Training coordinate with the Ministry of Finance to consider, based on the State budget resources, to propose to continue to have an appropriate level of support, at a certain time.

Regarding textbooks, the Deputy Prime Minister requested to carefully study the legal regulations on prices to manage prices in accordance with the actual situation, so that all students can access textbooks at reasonable prices. Textbooks are essential goods, every student must buy them, so the socialization of book compilation and printing needs to be designed appropriately to meet the requirements./.