On February 28, the Politburo decided to exempt all tuition fees for students from preschool to high school in public schools nationwide. The implementation time is from the beginning of the new school year 2025 - 2026 (September 2025 onwards).
Thus, from September this year, parents will no longer have to pay tuition fees for their children. However, normally, in addition to tuition fees, educational institutions also collect other fees. Below are some fees that schools are allowed to collect and parents must contribute at the beginning of the new school year.
Uniform
Pursuant to Article 9, Circular No. 26/2009/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training, the budget for sewing, purchasing, renting, borrowing uniforms and costumes is taken from the school's regular expenditure budget, contributions from students or other legal sources of revenue and must be publicly collected and spent.
Thus, the school is allowed to collect fees for the list of school uniforms and parents must fully contribute.
Student health insurance
According to the Law on Health Insurance, students are required to participate in health insurance.
Decree No. 188/2025/ND-CP, dated July 1, 2025 of the Government detailing and guiding the implementation of a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance, including the content of raising the level of health insurance support for students from 30% to a minimum of 50%.
Currently, the monthly health insurance contribution rate for students is calculated at 4.5% of the basic salary. Of which, the basic salary is applied at VND 2,340,000/month.
The health insurance contribution rate for each student in a year is 4.5% x 2,340,000 x 12 months = 1,263,600 VND/year.
From next school year, when implementing the new minimum support level of 50% from the state budget, students will pay a maximum of 631,800 VND/year. Compared to the previous payment level, students receive an additional 252,720 VND/year.
Some other collections
In addition to health insurance and uniforms, parents must pay an additional amount of separate fees according to the agreement between the school and parents in each locality or collect according to the Resolution of the People's Council of each province/city.
These fees include: Meals, boarding care, boarding equipment; Class fund; Preschool education; Drinking water, etc.
Students pay for this service based on the personal needs of each student.
In Hanoi, from the 2025 - 2026 school year, students will enjoy a boarding meal support policy.
The subjects of application are primary school students studying at educational institutions (excluding educational institutions with foreign investment) in Hanoi city, voluntarily participating in the use of boarding services at educational institutions; educational institutions (excluding educational institutions with foreign investment) in Hanoi city that have subjects specified in the above content.
The level of support for primary school students in group 1, studying at 23 educational institutions in mountainous communes and communes in the central banks of the Red River before the time of administrative unit arrangement, the support level was 30,000 VND/student/day (supporting main meals).
Group 2, primary school students studying at the remaining educational institutions, the support level is 20,000 VND/student/day (supporting main meals).
In case parents and schools agree on a higher meal allowance than the state's support level, the difference will be collected from learners (ensuring the minimum meal allowance is 30,000 VND/student/day).
The support period is the 2025-2026 school year (according to the actual number of days, not exceeding 9 months/school year).
