70th anniversary of Hanoi's Liberation Day Vietnam - Asia 2023 Smart City Summit Hanoi celebrates 15 years of administrative boundary adjustment 12th Vietnam-France decentrialized cooperation conference 31st Sea Games - Vietnam 2021 Covid-19 Pandemic
Home / Health & Education
Supporting tuition fee for kindergartens
Ngoc Thuy - Trung Anh 09:46, 2017/12/27
The Ministry of Training & Education has submitted to the government revised Education law, in which notably is the proposal to have free tuition for all public elementary and secondary schools.
At the conference evaluating efficiency in cooperation between the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Training & Education in 2017, with an aim to finalize the Education Law on December, representatives said there should be no charge for children in public kindergartens. Deputy Director of Planning & Economy Department of the Ministry of Training & Education Ngo Van Thinh said, at present, students do not have to pay for tuition free in elementary school, while there are still tuition fees for kindergartens and secondary schools, in addition to policies of reduced tuition fee for poor students. 


However, policies for tuition fees are having some shortcomings. Specifically, Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the education law, article 2 of clause 11 regulates that preschool education for five-yea-old children, primary education and lower secondary education shall be made universal. However, as of present, only students at primary education get free of tuition fee, while students in other academic level still have to pay tuition fee. This has caused difficulties to encourage students to go to school, especially students in high lands and under poverty. At present, parents of students in rural areas or high lands are of low income level, thus, paying tuition fee regardless how low it is still a challenge for them. 

In the process of considering a tuition-free secondary schools, the Ministry of Training & Education has conducted study at 18 countries in 4 continents, ranging from low income, middle income and high income countries. In which, 4 out of 18 countries have tuition free for all academic levels. 6 out of 18 countries have tuition free for kindergartens. All 18 countries have tuition free for preliminary schools. 11 out of 18 countries have tuition free for secondary schools, and 8 out of 18 countries have tuition free for high schools. As such, the study showed that 33% the number of countries have tuition free for kindergartens, 61% have tuition free for secondary schools and 44% for high schools. 

With regard to the tuition free proposal, Vice Director of Ha Nam Training & Education Nguyen Quang Long said, student’s families are expecting this policy for a long time. If this policy gets approved, it should be expanded to children in kindergartens. “If not all children in kindergartens get tuition free, then at least it should be applied to 5 year old children, and we are going for universalizing access to kindergarten education for children under 4 years of age, as such, we are hoping to expand the beneficiaries under this policy. This has also been implemented in many countries in the world” – Long said.

Many representatives are in favor of tuition free for secondary schools, and with option to expand to kindergartens. Besides, it is said that in many major cities, large population causes difficulties for public schools meeting demands in term of infrastructure, equipment and conditions for students to study. 
Other news
15:14, 2024/03/24
Hanoi accelerating efforts to reduce new tuberculosis cases
Hanoi has achieved the targets set in the National Strategy for TB Prevention and Control by 2020 with a vision of 2030, with 80% of TB cases detected and 92% of detected patients being cured of the disease.
21:52, 2024/03/23
Hanoi tackles overcrowded classrooms
Hanoi's education department has proposed adding more floors to schools to address the problem of large class sizes.
17:05, 2024/03/22
Vietnamese journalists get expertise from Indian experts
The well-organized training program is expected to foster cross-cultural exchange and reinforce bilateral ties between India and ITEC member countries for an extended period.
05:21, 2024/03/19
Effective STEM education in Hanoi schools
While STEM education has only recently found its way into official guidelines, several initiatives have been launched across Hanoi to give students of all ages access to this interdisciplinary approach to learning.
15:48, 2024/03/11
Vietnamese students' skills recognized in PISA survey
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2022 results show that Vietnam consistently ranks among the top performers in the ASEAN region, as well as high in the group of middle-income countries and territories.
13:44, 2024/03/10
Hanoi aims for 94.5% health insurance coverage this year.
Hanoi encourages enrollment in social and health ínsurance by increasing banking penetration to facilitate the payment of pensions or monthly social allowances.