No prohibition on tutoring
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) has just issued Circular 29/2024/TT-BGDDT (Circular 29) regulating extra teaching and learning. The Circular takes effect from February 14, 2025. Circular 29 has many new points compared to the current regulations in Circular 17/2012/TT-BGDDT.
According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the 2018 General Education Program has specified the number of periods/subject, and set out requirements for each subject that are suitable for students.
The Ministry of Education and Training also gives schools the autonomy to develop plans to ensure effectiveness. Teachers focus on innovating teaching methods to achieve the goal of the 2018 General Education Program, which is to develop students' capacity.
Thus, in principle, schools and teachers who implement the prescribed study hours can ensure that students acquire knowledge and meet the requirements of the educational program. In addition to the study hours according to the program, schools need to organize many fun activities, sports training, drawing, music, etc. for students to participate enthusiastically.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thanh, Director of the Department of Secondary Education, Ministry of Education and Training, emphasized that the new point in this Circular is that the Ministry of Education and Training stipulates 3 subjects that can teach and study extra in schools but cannot collect money from students, including: Students with unsatisfactory results in subjects; students selected by the school to nurture excellent students; students reviewing for graduation exams and entrance exams.
Thus, the school and teachers have implemented the prescribed study hours to ensure that students have the knowledge and meet the requirements of the program. If students have not met the requirements, the school must be responsible for teaching extra lessons, also known as knowledge remediation. The same is true for students selected to foster excellent students and students reviewing for final exams, which are included in the school's plan.
In addition, teachers need to guide students on self-study and self-discovery methods to absorb the content learned in class, avoiding the practice of forcing knowledge through extra study, which is ineffective.
Mr. Thanh emphasized that the Ministry of Education and Training's restriction on 3 subjects of extra teaching and learning in schools is aimed at schools that do not have extra teaching and learning.
Tuition is not charged for private tutoring in public schools.
One of the notable points with extra-curricular activities in schools is the issue of collecting and managing extra-curricular fees.
Article 7 of Circular 29 stipulates that the funding for organizing extra teaching and learning in schools will use the state budget and other legal funding sources according to the provisions of law. That is, schools are not allowed to collect extra tuition fees from students as before, the funding for organizing extra teaching will be taken from the budget.
Circular 29 also allows extra classes outside of school, but teachers must report to the principal and can only teach students who are not in their regular classes. This regulation will avoid unnecessary pressure from teachers on students in the classes they are teaching. In particular, there will no longer be a situation where teachers force their regular students to take extra classes. This is an opportunity for the general education teaching staff to improve their skills and teaching quality.
Public and transparent extracurricular teaching activities
Circular 29 also stipulates that tutoring centers must operate according to enterprise law, comply with reporting regulations and pay taxes in full as prescribed by law.
The tutoring facility must publicly announce on the Electronic Information Portal or post at the location of the tutoring facility the subjects that are taught; the duration of tutoring for each subject according to each grade level; the location, form, and time of organizing tutoring and learning; the list of tutors and the tuition fees before enrolling students in tutoring and learning classes.
