Many fields of study will not be supported by the state budget.

For training fields with high potential for socialization, tuition fees are determined based on full cost calculation, corresponding to training quality, and are not supported by the state budget, except for policy beneficiaries.

This is one of the solutions in the Draft Education Reform Project that the Ministry of Education and Training has just released.

Switch from average funding allocation mechanism to ordering

Mr. Bui Manh Nhi, Director of the Department of Personnel Organization, Ministry of Education and Training, member of the Drafting Committee of the Project, said that one of the contents of the draft Reform Project is to change the average funding allocation mechanism to ordering based on the system of economic and technical norms and criteria, quality standards of some types of training services, regardless of public and non-public training institutions to create healthy competition and equal development.

Ensure that the level of expenditure for each learner corresponds to the quality, appropriate to the profession and training level, especially for vocational education. Make transparent the joint venture and association activities of public education and training units; overcome the situation of public-private confusion. Innovate the distribution mechanism of public schools in the direction of both ensuring the rights of workers and learners and having accumulation for reinvestment and strengthening school facilities.

Accordingly, there are policies, mechanisms, and regulations on the contribution rates of learners, society, and the State in educational costs. For training fields with high potential for socialization, tuition fees are determined based on full cost calculation, corresponding to training quality, and the state budget does not support, except for policy beneficiaries.

Develop a high-quality tuition fee mechanism for a number of training programs, with close supervision by state management agencies and society. Continue to improve credit policies and mechanisms for students with difficult circumstances to borrow to pay for their studies. Encourage the formation of scholarship funds to help poor and excellent students.

Develop policies to encourage domestic and foreign organizations and individuals to invest in education and training. Have a mechanism to regulate the responsibilities of enterprises and individuals using labor to participate in the training process and invest in training. Implement different financial policies for non-profit and for-profit schools. Move towards ensuring equality in rights of learners in public schools and learners in non-public schools. Have a credit incentive mechanism for educational and training institutions.

Mr. Bui Manh Nhi affirmed: “The state budget plays a decisive role in universal education. Pay more attention to investing in education in areas with ethnic minorities, areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions, and occupations that need to attract learners. Accordingly, eliminate temporary classrooms, implement the goal of solidifying schools and classrooms, gradually modernize educational facilities, especially information technology infrastructure. Ensure that by 2020 the number of students per class does not exceed the regulations of each level of education. There are support mechanisms and policies to have enough "clean land" for school construction, strictly manage to prevent land planned for school construction from being used for other purposes".

Currently, the expenditure for a university student/year is 0.5 times the average national income per capita/year.

The minimum expenditure per university student/year is 1.2 times the national income.

Currently, the minimum average expenditure for a university student/year in Vietnam is only 0.5 times the average national income per capita/year. Education research experts believe that this minimum expenditure must be increased by 1.2 times to ensure quality.

That is one of the tasks and solutions proposed in the draft Education Reform Project.

Mr. Bui Manh Nhi, Director of the Department of Personnel Organization, Ministry of Education and Training, member of the Drafting Committee of the Project, said: “Maintaining low tuition fees and equalization among majors has existed for many years (from 1998 to 2010) and there is no sanction to regulate the responsibility of organizations and individuals using trained labor to contribute to education investment, so it has limited educational financial resources.

Therefore, the budget for education must reach at least 20% of the total budget. Ensure sufficient funding to meet the requirements of the education sector. At preschool and general education institutions, the ratio of expenditure on salaries and salary allowances must not exceed 75% of the total annual regular expenditure. The expenditure level (all sources) for a university student/year must reach at least 1.2 times the average national income per capita/year to be of quality. Currently, this average expenditure level in Vietnam is only 0.5.

It is known that the state budget for education and training increased significantly, from 210,000 VND (14 USD/person/year) in 2000 to 1,939,310 VND (92 USD/person/year) in 2012.

According to Mr. Nhi, the current regulations for educational institutions are that the state budget expenditure structure is 80% for salaries and salary allowances, 20% for educational activities (80/20). This regulation is no longer suitable because schools have been equipped with additional equipment for teaching, learning and school management. However, there are still many schools that do not have enough 20% of the budget to ensure operations, the ratio of expenditure for salaries and salary allowances still accounts for 90 - 95%. Some localities have changed the expenditure ratio, for example, Hanoi city: 70/30 for high schools, 75/25 for primary and secondary schools...

Currently, the total non-budgetary capital accounts for about 25 - 30% of the total investment capital for education. Non-public education is developing, especially in vocational education and higher education. In the 2011 - 2012 school year, the proportion of students studying at non-public educational institutions was: primary school 0.6%, middle school 0.6%, high school 9.1%; vocational secondary school 26.7%; college 18.8% and university 13.1%.

According to Dan Tri-LH