LookAtVietnam – Boarding schools with more than 35 boarders that reach a stable number of students within five years will be supported with preferential policies by the Ministry of Education and Training (MoET).

Photo: VNA

The draft does not include regulations on financial support for boarding students, but many provinces already have their own supportive policies in place.

In 2007, Dac Lac Province issued a regulation to provide free textbooks and partial scholarships for ethnic minority boarding students.

In Ha Giang and Quang Nam provinces, each ethnic minority boarding student is given VND100,000 (US$5.9) each month during the academic year. Yen Bai Province provides Mong ethnic boarding students with 15kg of rice each month.

However, provinces have asked the ministry to directly help boarders pay for their education.

Forty per cent

According to Phan Thi Thanh Sen, head of the Education Unit of Bac Tra My District in Quang Nam Province, the ministry should set the monthly support level for ethnic boarding students at 40 per cent the basic salary level, which is VND540,000 per month ($30). Representatives from other provinces suggested aid should equal 80 per cent of basic salary.

The ministry will gather more expert opinions for the draft to decide the content and form of future aid support, according to Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien.

Currently, there are more than 147,000 boarding students in 1,728 boarding schools across 23 provinces nationwide. Of these students, 51,000 are in primary schools, 79,700 in secondary schools and 18,700 are high-school students.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News