On the afternoon of April 25, continuing the 44th session, the National Assembly Standing Committee gave opinions on the draft Resolution of the National Assembly on exempting tuition fees for public preschool and primary school students from the 2025-2026 school year.
On behalf of the Government, Minister of Education and Training (MOET) Nguyen Kim Son said that the draft Resolution contributes to ensuring social security and reducing the economic burden for families with children studying in preschool and general education institutions nationwide.
The draft clearly states tuition exemption for learners at public educational institutions. Tuition support for students at private and public educational institutions.
According to the Government's Submission, the total need for state budget funding to implement tuition exemption and tuition support from the 2025-2026 school year for subjects under the draft Resolution is estimated at 30.6 trillion VND/school year (of which the public sector is 28.7 trillion VND; the private sector is 1.9 trillion VND).
Currently, the total state budget has exempted (not collected) tuition fees according to the provisions of the Law on Education for 5-year-old preschool children, primary school students, and secondary school students from the 2025-2026 school year to 22.4 trillion VND (of which, the public sector is 21.8 trillion VND; the private sector is 0.6 trillion VND).
Thus, the additional state budget that must be ensured when implementing the policy under this Resolution is 8.2 trillion VND/school year (of which, the public sector is 6.9 trillion VND; the private sector is 1.3 trillion VND). The budget level that needs to be ensured in each locality depends on the tuition payment regulations decided by the Provincial People's Council.
Reviewing this content, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said that the Standing Committee of the Committee approved the necessity of issuing a Resolution on tuition exemption and support for preschool children, primary school students, and those studying general education programs at educational institutions in the national education system.
At the same time, it basically agreed with the scope of regulation and subjects of application of the draft Resolution.
However, the agency is requested to edit and review the beneficiaries of the policy; supplement the need to expand the beneficiaries in the report and express in the articles and items in the draft resolution.
Some opinions say that the draft Resolution should not re-regulate the subjects for learners who have enjoyed policies of not collecting tuition fees, exemption, and support for tuition fees as prescribed in Article 99 of the Law on Education.
Regarding the budget for implementing the Resolution, the Standing Committee of the Committee recommends that the drafting agency carefully assess the budget balance capacity of localities, especially localities with difficult socio-economic conditions.
At the same time, supplementing the funding for students studying general education programs at continuing educational institutions, other educational institutions teaching general education programs; Supplementing the central budget provisions to support the local budget that has not been able to balance the budget in accordance with the law on the state budget.
Commenting at the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Nguyen Duc Hai said that this policy of the Central Government should ensure that the budget is included in the education cost.
Previously, some provinces and cities found this policy good and self-balancing, but now that it is implemented at the national level, they have to plan from the beginning of the year so that the education sector knows how much the total cost is.
Reporting further at the meeting, Chairman of the Committee for Culture and Society Nguyen Dac Vinh said that this amount of funding is not currently in the education budget.
Concluding this content, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Quang Phuong stated that the National Assembly Standing Committee agreed on the necessity of issuing a resolution and requested the agencies to complete the draft resolution dossier and submit it to the National Assembly at the 9th session.
