Proposal to exempt tuition fees at preschool level

Leaders in many localities have proposed that the draft amendments and supplements to a number of articles of the Education Law should expand the scope of tuition exemption to preschool level.

The Ministry of Education and Training has just submitted to the Government a draft to amend and supplement a number of articles of the current Education Law with some notable changes such as exempting tuition fees up to secondary school level.

However, many agencies and localities believe that the draft amendments and supplements to the Law on Education need to include exemption of tuition fees at preschool level.

These are the contributions made at the Conference "Evaluating the results of coordination in legal work between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Education and Training in 2017 to perfect the law on education" held on December 1 in Hanoi.

Class time of students at Quang Trung 1 Kindergarten. Photo: Archive

Mr. Ngo Van Thinh, Deputy Director of the Department of Financial Planning, Ministry of Education and Training, said that currently, all primary schools in our country do not have to pay tuition fees. Preschool and secondary schools still have to pay tuition fees, along with exemptions for difficult circumstances as specified in the list.

However, the current tuition policy reveals some limitations.

Specifically, the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Education, Clause 2, Article 11 stipulates: The State implements the policy of universalizing preschool education for children under 5 years old, universalizing primary education and universalizing secondary education, but currently only implements the policy of exempting tuition fees for primary school students.

The remaining levels of education still require tuition fees. This makes it difficult to mobilize children to go to school, especially students in mountainous and disadvantaged areas.

Currently, students' families in rural and mountainous areas have relatively low incomes.

Although the tuition fee is not high, it still causes difficulties for families. In addition, voters nationwide, through National Assembly delegates, also want to exempt tuition fees for secondary school students...

To prepare for the proposal to exempt secondary school tuition fees, the Ministry of Education and Training conducted research in 18 countries, representing 18 continents.

The countries studied are low-income, high-income, and middle-income. Of these, 4/18 countries completely exempt tuition fees for all levels of education.

There are 6/18 countries that completely exempt tuition fees for preschool students. There are 18/18 countries that completely exempt tuition fees for primary school students. There are 11/18 countries that completely exempt tuition fees for secondary school students. There are 8/18 countries that completely exempt tuition fees for high school students.

Thus, research from countries shows that 33% of countries exempt tuition fees at preschool level, 61% of countries exempt tuition fees at secondary level and 44% of countries exempt tuition fees at high school level.

In Vietnam, the exemption of tuition fees at secondary school level reflects the Party and State's viewpoint on universal education and demonstrates a humane policy.

Regarding tuition exemption, Mr. Nguyen Quang Long, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ha Nam province, said that parents have been waiting for tuition exemption for a long time.

If tuition fees are exempted, the exemption should be extended to preschool level. If this is not possible, research can be done to exempt tuition fees for universal subjects (currently universal for preschool children under 5 years old).

Mr. Bui Dinh Thanh, Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Duy Tien district, Ha Nam province, said that in Ha Nam, each year, the tuition fees for secondary schools only collect 7.7 billion VND, while the total budget contribution of the district reaches nearly 500 billion VND each year.

Therefore, the exemption of tuition fees at the secondary level is not worth much compared to the contribution, so exemption of tuition fees is necessary. This is highly anticipated by the people and if possible, it should be extended to the preschool level.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Tien Dung, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nam Dinh province, also agreed with the policy of exempting tuition fees up to preschool level.

The Department of Education and Training of Nam Dinh province has high expectations for changes in this Draft Law.

"I agree and propose to expand the tuition exemption to preschool level. The amount of money contributed from tuition fees (currently only 35,000 VND/student in mountainous areas and 150,000 VND/student in the plains) is very small, so the Ministry needs to reconsider," Mr. Dung raised the issue.

According to Mr. Tien Dung, if tuition is only exempted for public schools, children who fail to get into public schools and have to study at private schools will have to pay the full cost, which will be very high (about 1.5 million VND/student).

Except for those who accept to study at high-quality schools, private students are also proposed to be exempted from tuition fees.

A delegate from the Department of Education and Training of Hai Duong province also proposed that, in addition to exempting tuition fees for public schools, tuition fees should also be exempted for private schools because currently, in this locality, 50% of students are public schools, the rest are private schools.

This delegate also agreed with the proposal to expand the tuition-free regime to preschool level./.

According to VOV