Free tuition for students - a humane policy
Free tuition for students will help many families reduce difficulties and create opportunities for all students to go to school. This is also a solution to improve the quality of teaching.
At the Politburo meeting on February 28, 2025, after listening to the Government's report on the ability to balance finances during and after the process of streamlining the political system's apparatus, the Politburo decided to exempt all tuition fees for students from preschool to high school in public schools nationwide. The implementation time is from the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year (September 2025 onwards).
Nghe An Newspaper recorded the opinions of parents and teachers on this content.
Ms. Le Thi Phuong - Hung Binh ward (Vinh city):
Tuition-free policy is practical for many families
My family has 3 children, 2 of whom are currently attending public preschool, spending 560,000 VND per month on tuition and more than 2 million VND per month on food. The child in primary school alone spends nearly 1 million VND per month on tuition and boarding fees. In addition, there are food expenses and many other unnamed expenses. The income of a couple who are self-employed is only about 17 million VND per month, making it difficult to cover living expenses, and saving is difficult.
Last night (February 28), after hearing the news that the Politburo decided to exempt alltuitionfor students from kindergarten to high school in public schools nationwide, my husband and I sat down and calculated that if tuition fees were reduced, each year our family would reduce nearly 6 million VND in school expenses for our 3 children. This amount of money would help us have more conditions to buy books, clothes or save up a separate amount to take care of unexpected family matters. In fact, for working families like us, the tuition exemption policy is very practical and I really look forward to when the policy comes into effect.
Mr. Pham Tan Phuong - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Tan Ky district: The tuition exemption policy helps to mobilize students to go to school more easily.
I am sure that, upon receiving this information, not only families with children going to school but everyone will be extremely happy. Exemption of tuition fees not only demonstrates humanity but also shows the Party and State's concern for the cause of education. In fact, in our locality, a mountainous district, even "being exempted 1 dong" is valuable because there are still many poor households, a large number of workers who are not well-off. Meanwhile, every year, the number of students exempted from tuition fees is not much, mainly only a few students from poor households, orphans, students in villages 135.
On the part of the education sector, thanks to the tuition exemption policy, students will be more comfortable going to school, mobilizing students will be easier, avoiding the situation of students dropping out of school. However, in order for the tuition exemption to be implemented synchronously, I also hope that the State needs to pay attention to schools, ensuring that the suspension of tuition collection does not greatly affect activities, because currently 60% of the tuition collected is used by schools for professional activities and other expenses.
Mr. Dang Minh Chuong - Chairman of Minh Sang Education System: Creating opportunities for the non-public school system
Personally, I think that implementing free tuition is a humane policy, reaching the people's hearts, especially, this policy cares about preschool students from 3 months to 4 years old. For a long time, with the age of 3 months old, mainly students from industrial zones and because of the nature of their own work, families have to send their children to independent childcare groups, private preschools. Therefore, if there is a free tuition policy, it will help parents reduce some of the difficulties, helping them feel secure in their work.
Prof. Dr. Thai Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Education and Training: Free tuition will increase opportunities to invest in education.
The tuition fee exemption is a humane policy, providing learning opportunities for all students nationwide. This policy also motivates students to strive, excel, acquire knowledge, and repay the gratitude of the Party and the State. At the same time, the tuition fee exemption will create conditions for families to have more resources to take care of their children and invest in education.
Tuition exemption is consistent with the superiority of the Party and State's policies and regimes on education and is consistent with the general trend of developed countries. This is also a solution for Vietnamese education to move towards universalization at all levels, and is the basis for improving the quality of education and human resources to meet the demand for high-quality human resources in the era of national development.
According to the synthesis of the Ministry of Education and Training, based on the minimum tuition fee level as prescribed in Decree No. 81/2021/ND-CP and Decree No. 97/2023/ND-CP of the Government, it is estimated that the State budget must be paid to implement the policy of exempting tuition fees for students nationwide is about 30,000 billion VND (if excluding the local budgets of provinces and cities that have exempted tuition fees, the central budget will have to pay less than this amount).
Previously, the policy of exempting and reducing tuition fees has been implemented by our State for many years for a number of subjects. Accordingly, primary school students and 5-year-old preschool students will be exempted from tuition fees. In addition, the Government has also stipulated a policy of reducing 50%-70% of tuition fees, supporting study costs for many poor students, students in difficult circumstances, students belonging to social policy subjects, ethnic minority students (studying in public and private schools).
In Nghe An, in the 2024-2025 school year, according to the resolution of the People's Council of Nghe An province, the highest tuition fee is 280,000 VND/month for preschool education in wards of Vinh city. Tuition fees for other education levels range from 35,000 - 130,000 VND/month, depending on the level and area. The lowest fee is 35,000 VND/month for preschool students in mountainous communes and extremely disadvantaged areas.
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