Requesting the Ministry of Education and Training, Ms. Be Nguyen Thuy Trang (HCMC) said that the State has a policy to support study costs for poor ethnic minority students according to Decision No. 66/2013/QD-TTg.
However, the application for support is only limited to households with/near-poor certificates, not mentioning households with certificates confirmed by local authorities as having difficult circumstances and suffering from hunger.
Meanwhile, communes and provinces have criteria for reducing poor households each year, so obtaining a certificate is extremely difficult even though the family is actually having a hard time.
From this reality, Ms. Thuy Trang proposed that the competent authority consider accepting the application for ethnic minority students when there is a certificate of having difficult circumstances instead of a poor/near-poor household certificate.
"Currently, some scholarships for approval are also based on local status certificates, but the number of scholarships is limited compared to the actual number of ethnic minority students that need support" - Ms. Trang said.
Regarding Ms. Trang's proposal, the Ministry of Education and Training said that the State has currently had support policies for students in difficult circumstances belonging to poor and near-poor households, specifically:
Clause 7, Article 15 of Decree No. 238/2025/ND-CP dated September 3, 2025 of the Government regulating the policy on tuition fees, tuition exemptions, reductions, tuition support, support for study costs and service prices in the field of education and training stipulates tuition exemption, including: "Students and students studying at vocational and higher education institutions who are ethnic minorities whose father or mother or both father and mother or grandfather or grandparent (in case of living with Mr or Mrs) are from poor or near-poor households as prescribed by the Prime Minister".
Article 2 of Decision No. 66/2013/QD-TTg dated November 11, 2013 of the Prime Minister regulating the policy of supporting learning costs for ethnic minority students studying at higher education institutions stipulates: "Students who are ethnic minorities from poor households and near-poor households are supported with study costs equal to 60% of the general minimum wage and are entitled to no more than 10 months/school year/student".
For students whose families have financial difficulties due to accidents, diseases, natural disasters, fires, epidemics, during their school years (in addition to those classified as poor or near-poor households), the State has had credit policies with preferential interest rates according to the provisions of Decision No. 157/2007/QD-TTg dated September 27, 2007 of the Prime Minister on credit for students (amended in Decision No. 05/2022/QD-TTg dated March 23, 2022) to contribute to covering the costs of studying and living of students during their school years.
The Ministry of Education and Training acknowledges Ms. Be Nguyen Thuy Trang's opinion, will study and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to propose to competent authorities to consider and issue support policies such as tuition exemption, support for study costs for students from families facing difficulties (other than poor and near-poor households) at an appropriate time, in accordance with socio-economic development conditions and the balancing capacity of the state budget.
