Is it easy to be lazy and wasteful to exempt tuition fees for teacher training students?
The policy of exempting tuition fees for teacher training students used to have a positive effect in attracting students. However, in the current context, many experts believe that it has many inappropriate aspects.
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| Pedagogy students will be supported with loans to pay tuition and other living expenses. Illustration photo: Hai Nguyen. |
The Ministry of Education and Training has just proposed to replace the tuition exemption policy for teacher training students with credit loans and scholarships for students studying at teacher training institutions. The reason is that the demand for the labor market has changed, teacher training students across the country have not yet found jobs after graduation or are working in the wrong field, causing waste; therefore, it is necessary to remove the tuition exemption policy for students in this field.
Free tuition makes students lazy to study
Associate Professor Dr. Do Van Dung - Principal of Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education - expressed the opinion that the policy of free tuition for teacher training students should be abolished.
Mr. Dung said that this policy causes a lot of waste, while many pedagogical students are unemployed after graduating. Moreover, many pedagogical students after graduating from free education work for other places instead of serving pedagogical work, causing waste.
“So it is better to give credit loans, to those who study, we will lend money. If they graduate and become teachers, we will pay them back, but if they work outside, they will have to pay back this money.”
Talking about the fact that if the tuition exemption policy for teacher training students is abolished, it will make it more difficult for schools to recruit students, as evidenced by the fact that last year many teacher training schools had no candidates, Mr. Dung said that it must be accepted because the output is important, if there is a job, even if students pay tuition, they will still be excited to take the entrance exam to teacher training schools.
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| The tuition-free policy was implemented 20 years ago to attract talented people to the teaching profession. Illustration: Hai Nguyen |
According to Mr. Dung, with the current living standards, this amount of tuition is not worth much, not because of free tuition to attract students, even causing the opposite effect. Students take the entrance exam to the teacher training school not because of passion and love but mainly because of free tuition. This policy can also make students lazy to study, so students have to pay money to study hard.
Abolishing tuition exemption for teacher training students requires a roadmap
Meanwhile, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Tham - former Principal of the University of Education (Hue University) - said that the policy of exempting tuition fees for pedagogical students has had a long-term positive impact on pedagogical recruitment, especially during that period when pedagogical students graduated and had the opportunity to work in their chosen field.
“Currently, excellent students are not interested in teaching, mainly because finding a job after graduation is too difficult. In the current difficult conditions of recruiting students to teacher training colleges, if we remove the tuition exemption policy for teacher training students, it will be even more difficult to recruit,” said Mr. Tham.
Therefore, according to Mr. Tham, there needs to be a specific roadmap for excellent students to enter pedagogy. There needs to be macro-level solutions such as planning a network of teacher training institutions and appropriate policies, creating motivation for the development of the teaching staff, and pedagogical schools will have to innovate in teacher training to motivate future teachers.