A singing class in a Ho Chi Minh City elementary school.

Members of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee have asked that a draft proposal hiking national tuition fees be delayed, citing concerns of low-income families, especially from rural and highland areas.

The proposal to hike tuition fees was presented by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan and is expected to be discussed at the NA session opening later this month.

Under the proposal, for families with students attending public kindergarten, secondary and high schools levels, the tuition fees and other study expenses will be adjusted to ensure that they are not higher than 6 percent of the family’s total income.

The government will subsidize part of the tuition fees and expenses for families that fall under the poverty line.

The proposal suggests that a province be demarcated into areas wherein the income level among households is more or less uniform.

In Vietnam, the poverty line has been set at a monthly income of VND200,000 (US$11.25) per person in rural areas and VND260,000 ($15) per person in urban areas.

Phung Quoc Hien, chairman of the NA Finance and Budget Committee, suggested waiving entirely the tuition fees for low-income students, especially in rural areas.

NA Office Chairman Tran Dinh Dan said the current poverty line was “too low.”

“That’s why maybe there are more households considered to be poor according to the national standards than we thought, but overall, in many areas families struggle to pay tuition fees,” Dan said.

Kson Phuoc, chairman of the NA Ethnic Council, agreed with a proposal to waive tuition fees for students up to the secondary level in order to universalize secondary education.

However, deputy finance minister Do Hoang Anh Tuan warned that waiving tuition fees up to the secondary level could force the government budget to spend another VND3 trillion ($169 million) for education.

For tuition fees at the tertiary level, the education ministry has proposed increasing the current floor of VND180,000 per month by different amounts based on the disciplines.

For instance, the fees would range from VND200,000 to VND500,000 per month for students studying pedagogy and from VND290,000 to VND800,000 for students studying medicine and pharmaceutical science.

Dang Vu Minh, chairman of the NA Committee for Science and Technology, said increasing tuition fees at the colleges and university level would affect millions of students and should therefore be done gradually.

Dao Trong Thi, chairman of the NA Culture, Education, Youth and Children Committee, asked the government to delay the increase until the academic year 2010-2011 as the economic recession has forced many families into difficult situations.

Minister Nhan said he agreed with the proposal to delay the tuition hike, but asked that the government considers approving the increase to VND235,000 per month for college and university students.

Source: TN, Agencies