Subsidies for workers' children: Many concerns

Looking back at a year of policy implementation

Effective from November 1, 2020, Decree No. 105/2020/ND-CP dated September 8, 2020 of the Government stipulates policies for developing preschool education. Accordingly, this Decree applies to independent nurseries and groups; independent kindergartens and preschool classes; independent preschools and preschool classes; and related organizations and individuals. Notably, Article 8 of this Decree includes a subsidy policy for preschool children who are children of workers and laborers working in industrial parks. The beneficiaries of this policy are children studying at private preschools that have been licensed by competent authorities to establish and operate in accordance with regulations, whose father, mother, or caregiver is a worker or laborer working in industrial parks.industrial parksigned a labor contract by the enterprise according to regulations.

The campus of a private kindergarten in Vinh City has many children of workers receiving subsidies from Decree No. 105/2020/ND-CP. Photo: Diep Thanh

To specify the above Decree, the People's Council of Nghe An province issued Resolution No. 12/2021/NQ-HDND dated August 13, 2021 to stipulate a number of policies for the development of non-public preschool education. Regarding the content of Article 8 - Decree No. 105/2020/ND-CP, Resolution No. 12/2021/NQ-HDND clearly states: The support level for preschool children is 160,000 VND/child/month; The support period is calculated according to the actual number of months of study, but not more than 9 months/1 school year. The People's Council of Nghe An province assigned the Provincial People's Committee to implement this Resolution, the Provincial Labor Federation to propagate the content of Resolution 12 on the mass media.

Sharing about the propaganda work, Ms. Le Phuc Loi - specialist of the Propaganda - Women's Department, Provincial Labor Federation said: "Nghe An Labor Union has deployed propaganda content on the Labor page of Nghe An Newspaper, Fanpage, electronic information page of Provincial Labor Federation, specialized Labor Union Zalo group... After one year of implementation, the whole province has 176 children of workers and laborers working in industrial parks who are eligible to receive subsidies. Currently, the amount of 100,800,000 VND has been paid. The districts and towns that have paid support are: Hung Nguyen, Hoang Mai, Nghi Loc, Nam Dan, Cua Lo. Vinh city alone has a budget of 75,520,000 VND but has not paid yet".

After one year of implementation, the whole province only has 176 children of workers and laborers eligible to receive subsidies. Photo: Diep Thanh

Explain the reasons why childrenworkers' childrenin Vinh city has not received support, Mr. Le Truong Son - Deputy Head of the Department of Education and Training of Vinh city said: "In the 2021-2022 school year, due to the impact of the epidemic, kindergartens in Vinh city were forced to close. This is also the reason why after 3 times of implementing instructions for making records, we still could not make payments. However, in the 2022-2023 school year, we continued to guide and collect records for all 3 months of April, May, and June of the second semester of the 2021-2022 school year and 4 months of September, October, November, and December of the first semester of the 2022-2023 school year. The list finalized on November 14 was 320 children with a total subsidy of 182,720,000 VND. Other localities have all received it, parents in Vinh city please Rest assured, I will definitely be accepted, just later for objective reasons."

Practical shortcomings

Sharing about the shortcomings in the implementation process, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Nhi - Vice President of the Provincial Labor Federation said: "This is a meaningful policy, demonstrating the local government's concern for preschool education in general and children of workers and preschool teachers in industrial parks in particular. However, when implemented in Nghe An, most of the children of workers are not beneficiaries, the rate of beneficiaries is too low. Because workers and laborers working in industrial parks are mainly from neighboring localities, their children study in public schools according to their permanent residence. Some workers from further away leave their children in their hometowns with their grandparents and attend local public schools. In addition, because of low income, most workers will prioritize sending their children to public schools and do not have money to send their children to private preschools with high costs. Not to mention, localities also have policies to prioritize recruiting children of workers. "People with low incomes, difficult circumstances, etc. should not go to public schools anymore."

Many parents are workers and have difficult circumstances but do not receive subsidies because they do not work in industrial zones. Photo: Diep Thanh

As one of the schools near VSIP Industrial Park, with many children of workers, the list of children receiving this policy at Ha An Kindergarten is also very modest. Ms. Nguyen Thi Ha - Principal of Ha An Kindergarten (Hung Dong) said: "Regarding the rights of children, as soon as we received information about the policy, we immediately deployed it to parents. However, every semester we need to make a profile but have not received the subsidy yet, many parents are discouraged and do not want to do it anymore. They shared that each time they make a profile, it takes time because they have to make an application with confirmation from the company, notarize birth certificates, household registration or temporary residence papers. For those from far away, they have to ask their relatives to help them and send it up, which is very troublesome. Perhaps that is why the number of children applying this time is much less."

In addition to the above shortcomings and inconveniences, there is another shortcoming coming from the recipients and non-recipients. In fact, contacting the parents of the group of children eligible for the subsidy will make this clearer. “The conditions of these families are not low. Once they have accepted to pay a higher tuition fee than the average for their children, their average income must also be high. Most of the parents who send their children to our school have a fairly good standard of living, holding important positions in businesses, not just workers” - said the principal of a private kindergarten in Nam Dan.

The living standards of families with children in private kindergartens are mostly quite good. Photo: Diep Thanh

Similarly, in the list of children receiving support from Vinh city, there are many children studying at famous and expensive private kindergartens with average tuition fees of 3-5 million VND/month. So is the support level of 160,000 VND/month really suitable for this group of children? This is also the question of many union members and workers. And in fact, the trade union organization has also received many complaints about the fact that although they are in difficulty, they only support workers in industrial parks but not workers outside industrial parks; or people in difficulty who need support are not eligible to receive it, but people with surplus money are able to receive it...

“My company has more than 100 employees.Worker, many people in difficult circumstances and many people with children of preschool age, but up to now only I have received this subsidy. There may be many reasons leading to the narrowing of this target, but I hope that in the coming time, the authorities will have more reasonable adjustments so that this humane policy can reach those in need" - Mr. Nguyen Huu Huan, a worker at Nam Cam Superfine Stone Powder Factory shared.