Deputy Minister of Education and Training talks about the overload situation in the preschool system

On the eve of the new school year, Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thi Nghia discussed the current overload situation at some public kindergartens in big cities as well as the inadequacy between the tuition fees of public and private schools...

*According to statistics from the Ministry of Education and Training, currently the number of public kindergartens nationwide accounts for about 75%, however, the reality is that in big cities, the situation of public school overload is quite complicated. According to the Deputy Minister, what is the solution to this difficult problem?

Deputy Minister Nguyen Thi Nghia:According to local reports, there are currently 12,976 kindergartens nationwide, of which 9,742 are public kindergartens, accounting for more than 75%, and the number of children attending school is increasing every year. The rate of preschool children attending school is 82.5%, of which 5-year-old kindergarten is 98.6%. However, in some big cities and especially in the capital Hanoi, the overload situation in public kindergartens still exists, and the education and training sector alone cannot overcome it.

The reason for this situation is that the mechanical population is increasing rapidly in big cities due to the increasing number of immigrants, but the work of forecasting the child population to serve the expansion and development of the scale and network of schools is still limited. Many urban area projects and high-rise buildings have been granted land for construction, have been and are being put into use but have not allocated land to build kindergartens and schools.

For example, in Hanoi, there are currently 25 newly established urban areas and wards, but only 13 have built kindergartens (including 4 public schools and 9 non-public schools), so there are 12 urban areas without kindergartens and 21 urban areas without public kindergartens (according to the report of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training). On the other hand, the huge difference in tuition fees, teacher quality, and facilities between public and private kindergartens is also the cause of overloading in public schools.

One of the main reasons why parents have to stay up all night
To apply for preschool for children, the tuition difference between public schools is too large.
and private schools - Photo: Hoang Lan

To solve the overload situation in public preschools requires the drastic participation of Party committees and authorities at all levels, the joint efforts of local organizations, departments and unions, and a reasonable policy mechanism for preschool education development, first of all, developing the network of preschool schools and classes must be linked to urban planning, building new public preschools in new residential areas, investing in and renovating facilities for degraded public schools, improving training and fostering preschool managers and teachers, adjusting tuition fees of public preschools in accordance with the quality of investment in facilities and the quality of child care and education, creating conditions for private schools to develop and adjusting tuition fees to be more suitable to the income of the majority of civil servants, workers and other employees to help public and private schools "get closer" to each other...

*Many big cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City... although ensuring schools for 100% of children of school age. But the huge difference in contribution between public and private schools has created a "fierce" race at the preschool level. To reduce the gap between public and private preschools in the coming time, what policies does the education sector need, Madam?

- In fact, existing preschools and classes in cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City... do not have enough space for 100% of preschool-age children to attend, so localities are focusing on maintaining the rate of children attending preschools, prioritizing preschool children, especially 5-year-olds, to prepare them well for first grade of primary school.

As mentioned above, one of the causes of overload of public kindergartens is the difference in tuition fees between public and non-public schools. To contribute to overcoming this situation, it is necessary to implement preferential policies to improve the socialization of education according to Decree No. 69/2008/ND-CP of the Government, according to which, schools, kindergartens, nursery groups, and private independent kindergartens are assigned or leased land and facilities by the State, and receive budget support when performing tasks assigned by the State, and enjoy preferential policies on taxes, credits and other policies according to the Government's regulations on encouraging the development of non-public service providers. Thereby, reducing investment costs and agreeing on reasonable tuition fees.

Strengthening strict management of private preschools’ operations in terms of quality of care, education, facilities, management staff, teachers and financial activities, ensuring that private preschools must be transparent about facilities, teaching staff, quality of care, education and financial revenues and expenditures. On that basis, people can choose preschools that are suitable for their family’s conditions and monitor the school’s operations. That requires schools to balance quality and tuition fees according to the agreement in a reasonable manner.

Widely disseminate the Party and State's policies on policies to encourage the development of non-public service providers, create consensus in the whole society, on that basis help people respect and treat equally the products and services of non-public facilities as those of public facilities, avoid the "subsidized" ideology of relying on the State. On the other hand, help non-public preschool institutions also have a part of the responsibility to collect and provide services to social policy subjects like public facilities.

Implementing the Government's Decree on regulations on tuition exemption and reduction, support for learning costs and the mechanism for collecting and using tuition fees for educational institutions in the national education system from the 2010-2011 school year to the 2014-2015 school year, localities have developed a Project to establish high-quality public preschools with tuition fees appropriate to the quality of service, creating many choices for parents.

*Previously, we had a semi-public kindergarten model, but after the Government Decree was issued, this model was abolished. Meanwhile, many private schools believe that kindergartens should be formed with partial state investment (public kindergartens with financial autonomy) and a floor price for tuition fees should be set. What is the Deputy Minister's opinion on this issue?

- According to the provisions of the 2005 Education Law, preschool education has the following types of schools: public, private, and non-public. From January 1, 2006, there will be no semi-public schools. The Ministry of Education and Training has issued a Circular guiding the procedures for converting semi-public and non-public preschool and general education establishments to private preschool and general education establishments; semi-public preschool and general education establishments to private preschool and general education establishments; semi-public preschool and general education establishments to public preschool and general education establishments.

Localities have implemented school type conversion, ensuring there are enough public preschools to meet the requirements for universal education for 5-year-old kindergartens. Currently, in addition to 18 provinces without semi-public preschools, 32 provinces/cities have approved the Project to convert semi-public preschools to public preschools.

Many public kindergartens have operated under an autonomous mechanism, taking responsibility for performing tasks, organizing the apparatus, staffing and finance for public service units according to Decree No. 43 of the Government. Accordingly, schools are given autonomy and responsibility for organizing work, rearranging the apparatus, using labor and financial resources to complete assigned tasks; promoting all capabilities of the unit to provide high-quality services to society; increasing revenue to gradually solve income for workers, implementing the policy of socialization in providing services to society, mobilizing contributions from the social community along with supporting a part of the budget for spending on career activities, gradually reducing subsidies from the state budget.

The implementation of financial autonomy by public preschools as stipulated in Decree No. 43 of the Government has brought certain successes, the conditions for child care and education have been gradually standardized, facilities and equipment are modern, the quality of teachers has been improved, thereby improving the quality of education, creating prestige among the people.

However, the model of financially autonomous public preschools still faces some difficulties, such as the majority of financially autonomous public schools currently originate from semi-public schools, so most of the facilities are still in poor condition, the quality is not better than normal public schools, while families have to pay higher tuition fees, leading to a decrease in children going to school, loss of tuition fees, low income for teachers, so the school cannot attract good teachers, teachers are not confident in their commitment to the school. The situation of few children, tuition debt is a difficulty for financially autonomous preschools in rural areas.

To solve the difficulties of localities, it is necessary to develop a roadmap to continue investing in facilities and conditions to ensure the quality of child care and education, team building, etc.

According to the provisions of Decree No. 49 of the Government, Regulations on tuition exemption and reduction, support for learning costs and mechanisms for collecting and using tuition fees for educational institutions in the national education system from the 2010-2011 school year to the 2014-2015 school year, public preschools and general schools implementing high-quality programs are proactive in developing appropriate tuition fees to cover training costs, submit to the Provincial People's Committee for approval and must implement the Publicity Regulations prescribed by the Ministry of Education and Training.

Currently, many provinces and cities have organized seminars on high-quality preschool models, on that basis finding a development direction suitable to the needs of society and legal regulations. This is a good model to meet the increasing demand for quality child care and education of parents. Tuition fees will be commensurate with the investment in facilities, teaching staff and quality of child care and education services.

*An obvious problem is that after the Project on Universal Preschool Education for 5-year-old children was approved, many localities decided to prioritize sending all children of this age group to public schools, leading to the situation where other age groups had to attend private schools because they had run out of admission quotas. So, according to the Deputy Minister, is the implementation of the localities reasonable? Are we losing fairness in the education of children between age groups?

- The Ministry has directed that the implementation of the Project on Universalizing Preschool Education for 5-year-olds must not be rushed or rushed, and that universalization must not result in a lack of attention to children under 5 years old. The content of the Project clearly states: "Every year, mobilize most five-year-old children to attend preschool classes to provide care and education in 2 sessions/day, maintain and sustain the number of children under 5 years old attending preschools in various forms." Localities, based on local conditions, determine a suitable universalization roadmap to maintain stability and develop preschool education in a solid manner.

In fact, the rate of mobilizing 5-year-old children to attend school nationwide is quite high (over 98%). The issue is to improve the quality of child care and education; mobilize most 5-year-old children to attend school for care and education 2 sessions/day, in addition to continuing to maintain and sustain the number of children under 5 years old attending preschool education facilities in many forms, ensuring that the number of children under 5 years old attending public classes is not lower than the current level, in order to create stability in the development of preschool education.

If the Universalization Project is implemented with the solution of giving maximum priority to enrolling 5-year-old children in public preschools, schools that still have quotas will enroll children 4 years old and under, which is not in accordance with the spirit of the Project and the guidance of the Ministry of Education and Training. Localities need to build more schools and classes to meet the needs of caring for and educating children of all ages.

Thank you, Deputy Minister!

According to Dan Tri