At the 38th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Law on Teachers.
The draft law has attracted attention when proposing policies to support teachers, including subsidies based on the nature of work and region; policies to support training and development; periodic health care, occupational health care; tuition exemption for biological children and legally adopted children of teachers while working...
To implement the tuition-free policy for children of teachers and lecturers, about 9,200 billion VND/year is needed.
As an insider, Ms. Pham Thi Hong Phuong - Mai Son District Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities (Son La Province) said that the proposal to exempt and reduce tuition fees for teachers' children shows sharing and concern for the team in the industry. However, there are still many things that are not really suitable. In fact, tuition fees at public schools are not too big of a problem.
"Teaching is a special profession, especially working in remote areas. I myself currently teach at two schools, where the facilities are lacking. The difficulties, hardships, and pressures of teachers are clear. However, implementing tuition exemption for teachers' children will have many opposing opinions.
"Although the pressure is difficult, compared to many people in society, the teaching profession is more stable. Farmers or freelance workers also have many hardships," Ms. Phuong said.
According to Ms. Phuong, we can replace tuition exemption by adding allowances for the teaching profession. Especially for teachers in remote areas that are inherently difficult. Or we can focus on exempting tuition fees for students with special circumstances. This will create fairness. Because many teachers also have stable incomes, not to the point of difficulty.
Sharing the same view, Ms. Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy - Principal of Lung Luong Primary School (Thai Nguyen province) said that the proposal to exempt tuition fees for teachers' children has many advantages. This will help the teaching profession be respected and attract resources. However, there needs to be selection, not generalization.
According to the Principal of Lung Luong Primary School, it is not reasonable to apply this to all teachers nationwide. Currently, there are many policies and regimes to support the teaching staff.
"There should be no equalization in the whole society. We need to focus on and have appropriate policies for teachers working in particularly difficult areas. Teachers in the city must be different from teachers in mountainous areas.
The proposal to exempt tuition fees needs to be carefully considered in terms of how to implement it reasonably, without causing budget imbalance and ensuring social justice," said Ms. Thuy.
Previously, speaking with Lao Dong, National Assembly delegate Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap delegation) expressed his disagreement with the proposal to exempt tuition fees for biological and legally adopted children of working teachers.
According to delegate Pham Van Hoa, teachers are also civil servants and cannot have too many "privileges and benefits" compared to other civil servants. It is right to increase teachers' salaries, even very high ones, but nothing should be free, including tuition fees.
