A history teacher once worried about me like that when she witnessed many history exam seasons becoming “obsessive”. In reality, many localities have proactively exempted or reduced ticket prices for students, but this is not consistent. Even in Hue, there was a year when students were exempted from entrance fees to historical sites, but only for a short period of time.
The Ministry of Education and Training has just issued a document asking for opinions on a number of issues related to amending the Law on Education, emphasizing the amendment and supplementation of Clause 1 and Clause 2, Article 10 on exemption and reduction of public service ticket prices for transportation, entertainment, visiting museums, historical sites, and cultural works for students.
This Ministry stated that it is necessary to stipulate that high school students are exempted from paying for visits to cultural institutions such as museums, historical-cultural sites, and scenic spots, and to standardize terminology to comply with the Law on Cultural Heritage. Particularly for students, fees for visits to museums, historical-cultural sites, and scenic spots are reduced.
The above content originates from the acceptance of opinions from the majority of teachers, learners, and educational management agencies, which has a positive impact on the creation of many opportunities for high school students, especially primary school students, to participate in learning in the form of practical experiences and discoveries. This direction of amendment is consistent with the purpose and requirements of the current General Education Program.
The Ministry also proposed that students receive a discount on service tickets when directly using library services, because there is no concept of library service tickets under the Library Law. At the same time, the Library Law stipulates the rights of specific library users, according to which children have the right to be facilitated to use information resources appropriate to their age and grade level at public libraries, and are exempted from library card fees.
For public transport, it is necessary to add 3 types of public transport for which students are entitled to discounts: elevated train, subway, ferry (Decree 84/2020/ND-CP only stipulates discounts on train and bus tickets). Reason: Currently, in large cities, public transport includes not only buses but also new types of transport such as elevated trains and subways. In some other areas, ferries are a popular means of transport.
If approved, this exemption policy will not cause too much loss of revenue, but the value it brings is huge: Not only will it help students use public transport more, reducing traffic accidents, but it will also have a positive impact on knowledge acquisition, life experience and increasing soft skills for future generations.
