At the regular Government meeting in the first six months today, Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Kim Son proposed the Government issue a Resolution on tuition fees for the 2022-2023 school year so that institutions timely implementation.

At the same time, it is proposed that the Government assign the Ministry of Education and Training to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with other ministries and sectors in, amending Decree No. 81/2021/ND-CP (Decree 81) to serve as a legal basis for implementation from the school year 2023- 2024 on tuition-related content.

If 5.5 million junior high school students are exempted from tuition fees each with VND2 million, it is estimated that the state budget will compensate VND11,199.8 billion annually.

Specifically, regarding the tuition fees for public preschool education in the academic year 2022-2023, for ECE institutions that cannot afford their own recurrent expenses, the Ministry of Education and Training proposes to keep the tuition fee stable in the 2021-23 school year while for self-financing educational institutions, the ministry proposed educational institutions to set tuition fees on the basis of economic-technical norms and cost norms promulgated by educational institutions. The educational institution shall submit to people's committees in provinces for approval of people's councils in provinces.

The Ministry of Education and Training recommended that, for localities that have issued a Resolution stipulating the tuition fee rate for the 2022-2023 school year, the tuition fee is higher than that of the 2021-2022 school year only if provincial people's councils permit to continue this to comply with the Resolution stipulating the tuition fee rates for the 2021-2022 school year until the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

From the school year 2023-2024, provincial people's councils decide to adjust the framework and preschool tuition fees according to the annual consumer price index.

For public higher education, the ministry proposed to delay the tuition fee bracket specified in Decree 81 by one year. In the academic year 2022-2023, the tuition fee of a public higher education institution that cannot cover its own recurrent expenditure will increase by up to 15 percent while according to the Decree 81, it is 25 percent compared to the academic year 2021-2022.

For public higher education institutions that self-finance recurrent expenditures, the ministry proposes to determine a maximum tuition fee ceiling with a coefficient of two times higher than that of an institution that has not yet covered its own recurrent expenditures (remaining the same as specified in Decree 81).

For public higher education institutions that self-finance their recurrent and investment expenditures, the maximum tuition fee ceiling shall be determined with a coefficient of 2.5 times higher than that of an institution that self-finances recurrent and investment expenditures (remaining unchanged) as stipulated in the Decree 81.

If this proposal is implemented, the state budget must increase by VND 25,199 billion in the three-year period from 2022 to 2024 after deducting the number of students in extremely difficult areas, students have been exempted from tuition fees according to the provisions of the Decree 81.

For the high school system, the ministry proposed to keep the tuition fee stable in the 2021-2022 school year for public high school institutions that have not been able to cover their own recurrent expenses.

With regard to self-financing high school educational institutions, these educational institutions shall set the tuition fee rates on the basis of economic-technical norms. Educational institutions shall submit to provincial people's committees for approval of the fee collection rate.

For localities that have issued a resolution to decide on tuition fees for the 2022-2023 school year, but the tuition fee is higher than that of the 2021-2022 school year: The Provincial People's Council assigns the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council for permission to continue complying with the resolution stipulating the tuition fee rates for the 2021-2022 school year to the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

From the 2023-2024 school year, the Provincial People's Council decides to adjust the framework and tuition rates for public high schools according to the annual consumer price index.

With respect to the Ministry of Education and Training’s proposal at the meeting, the Prime Minister assigned related agencies to study and evaluate the impact, especially the Ministry of Finance to calculate budget-related issues. As per the direction of the Government and the Prime Minister, it is necessary to review and have a roadmap to adjust tuition fees appropriately with consideration for people’s living.

The Prime Minister noted that the Ministry of Education and Training needs to urgently work with relevant ministries and agencies, and submit them to the Government for the promulgation of a resolution on the above contents for timely implementation from the 2022-2023 school year.

Source: SGGP