Tuition exemption for secondary school students, tuition policy for pedagogical students, education accreditation and high-school finals will be the focus when amending the Education Law this time.

Tuition exemption is applied to state-owned secondary school students

Under the current law, tuition exemption is applied only to state-owned primary school students.

Policy makers are considering exemption for tuition for state-owned nursery school children (only applied to 5-year-old children), and secondary school students as well.

Meanwhile, 5-year-old children at private nursery schools, and students at private primary and secondary schools, would receive support to pay tuition.

The tuition exemption policy would be implemented in accordance with a roadmap to be drawn up by the government. In the immediate time, the policy will be applied to students in areas with difficult conditions.

Nguyen Tung Lam, chair of the Hanoi Education Psychology Association, applauded the tuition exemption policy, emphasizing that this will encourage study and education opportunities for everyone.

According to Minister of Education and Training Phung Xuan Nha, the tuition exemption will allow learners reduce the study cost and save resources of the society. It is expected that 5 million students will benefit once the policy is set.

However, Lam warned that the tuition exemption would shrink schools’ budgets. Under the current budget allocation scheme, schools have the right to retain a part of the collections from tuition, 18 percent of which will be spent on education activities and 82 percent on regular expenses.

Currently, pedagogical students and those who attend pedagogical refreshing courses do not have to pay tuitions. But the policy won’t be applied once the amended law takes effect.

It is expected that pedagogical students will be allowed to borrow money to pay tuition and cover other expenses during the study. After graduation, they will see debts cleared if they work in the education sector for a certain time. If they don’t, they won’t get the money back.

Pham Tat Dong, deputy chair of the Vietnam Society of Study Encouragement, commented that the policy on exempting tuition for pedagogical students had helped attract excellent students to pedagogical schools, but it was not clear if these excellent students would work as teachers after finishing school. The policy needs to be removed as it is no longer suitable to the current conditions.

Regarding measures to upgrade teachers’ quality, the draft of the amended law says nursery school teachers must finish pedagogical junior college at least (3-year training) instead of intermediate school (2-year training), while primary, secondary and high school teachers must finish pedagogical universities (4-year training).

Education Ministry loses in doctorate plagiarism case

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) have lost a lawsuit related to the withdrawal of a doctorate degree from Hoang Xuan Que from the Hanoi National University of Economics.

High-school graduates turn away from higher education

As many as 30 per cent of high-school students have decided not to apply for colleges this year according to the Ministry of Education and Training.  

Le Huyen