The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just announced a draft Decree regulating the exemption of general education textbooks and the roadmap for tuition fee exemption, and the curriculum for National Defense and Security Education (GDQPAN) subjects at higher education and vocational education institutions on the Ministry's Electronic Information Portal to collect comments according to regulations.
The development of the Decree aims to concretize Resolution 71-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthrough development of education and training and the State's law on ensuring the right to education of the people; and at the same time create a legal basis for organizing the unified and synchronous implementation of policies to support learners, contributing to reducing learning costs and ensuring fairness in education.
Free textbooks nationwide from the 2029-2030 school year
The draft Decree stipulates the implementation of free textbooks for general education students and learners at educational institutions implementing the general education program and the continuing education program at the high school level.
The policy is implemented according to the common library model: The State invests in purchasing textbooks (including printed books and Braille books) to equip libraries of educational institutions; students and teachers are allowed to borrow textbooks for use in the school year or semester and return them after the end of the usage period to continue management and reuse.
The list of textbooks for free use belongs to the set of textbooks decided by the Minister of Education and Training for uniform use nationwide.
According to the draft Decree, the exemption of textbooks will be implemented nationwide from the 2029-2030 school year; localities with budget balancing capacity are encouraged to implement it earlier, prioritizing border areas, islands, ethnic minority and mountainous areas, and areas with particularly difficult socio-economic conditions.
Free curriculum and tuition fees for National Defense and Security Education
The draft Decree also stipulates that the State ensures the GDQPAN subject curriculum to provide free of charge to learners at higher education and vocational education institutions in the form of borrowing - returning through libraries.
The free implementation of the GDQPAN subject curriculum nationwide will be implemented from the 2027-2028 school year.
At the same time, learners are not required to pay tuition fees for the GDQPAN subject according to the compulsory training program; the state budget directly subsidizes tuition fees to training institutions. Tuition fee exemption is implemented from the 2027-2028 school year after issuing economic - technical norms in the 2026-2027 school year. In case learners have to retake this subject, they will not be eligible for tuition fee exemption.
Strictly prohibit acts of illegal toll collection
According to the draft Decree, the budget for implementing the policies in the Decree is guaranteed by the state budget according to the current decentralization; at the same time, it encourages the mobilization of legal resources from organizations and individuals at home and abroad to support educational institutions.
The draft Decree stipulates that the management, procurement, allocation, use and circulation of textbooks and curriculum must be carried out publicly and transparently; strengthen accountability and supervision.
Textbooks and textbooks purchased from the state budget are public assets, managed and used according to the provisions of law. Therefore, acts such as collecting fees against regulations, providing books not in the correct list, creating fake dossiers or causing loss of public assets are strictly prohibited and handled according to the provisions of law.
Also according to the draft Decree, the organization of implementation prioritizes maximizing the quantity of existing textbooks, strengthening rotation between educational institutions through the library interconnection mechanism to improve the efficiency of budget use and limit waste.
