Proposal to exempt tuition fees for private students through schools
On the morning of June 16, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the Draft Resolution of the National Assembly on tuition exemption and support for preschool children, primary school students, and students studying general education programs at educational institutions in the national education system.
Contributing opinions to the Draft Resolution, National Assembly delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga (Hai Duong Delegation) said that at educational institutions at preschools and general education institutions in the national education system, tuition fees are still an important source of revenue, directly serving the school's regular expenditure activities, especially expenditures related to teaching support, student care, facilities maintenance, adding teaching equipment, and paying remuneration to a number of contract departments outside the payroll.
"When tuition exemption is implemented according to the Resolution, it means that revenue is no longer there. If the funding is delayed, it will certainly affect the teaching activities of the school" - Ms. Nga expressed concern.
According to the draft, the Resolution takes effect from September 2025, the preparation time is not long. Therefore, the State Budget's compensation for tuition exemption for public general education institutions needs to be urgently implemented.
"The Government is requested to direct competent authorities to urgently issue a plan to guide the allocation of compensation for educational institutions, ensuring smooth organization and implementation from the beginning of the new school year" - delegate Nguyen Thi Viet Nga suggested.
In addition, the female delegate also proposed a form of tuition support for students of non-public educational institutions for educational institutions instead of directly for learners. This is to ensure accuracy, speed, convenience in terms of administration and funding for the right purpose.
"If we consider directly supporting learners, the statistics and payment procedures are much more complicated," said Ms. Nga.
Proposal to supplement regulations on principles for determining tuition support levels
National Assembly delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Thai Binh delegation) said that tuition fees at non-public and private institutions are very diverse and higher than those at public educational institutions. Therefore, to ensure fairness and budget efficiency, it is necessary to stipulate the addition of a support level not lower than the local public tuition ceiling or the average state budget spent on students in the public education system in this Resolution.
Analyzing, the delegate said that the draft does not clearly stipulate the principles of support and criteria for determining the level of support, which can lead to differences between localities, especially localities with good budget conditions, which will provide much higher support, while the provinces in difficulty can provide very low support and do not have enough resources to implement, affecting the rights of learners.
"I suggest that it is necessary to supplement regulations on the principle of determining the level of support, ensuring fairness, reasonableness and giving priority to localities in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, areas with difficult and extremely difficult economic conditions. This both ensures the humanity of the policy, contributing to narrowing the development gap between regions so that everyone who goes to school is supported" - the delegate said.
In addition, the female delegate proposed to amend Clause 2, Article 2 as follows: Support tuition fees for preschool children, primary school students, and students studying general education programs in private and public educational institutions. The tuition support level decided by the Provincial People's Council must not be higher than the tuition ceiling for public training institutions in the locality".
