HCMC – The HCMC government could possibly use its budget to cover tuition fees for all the students of public schools in the city for the first semester of the 2021-2022 school year, following a proposal by the municipal Department of Education and Training.
Nguyen Van Hieu, director of the department, disclosed the city’s decision in the “Residents ask-the city answers” program on August 30. The department is awaiting the city’s official document on the decision.
The exemption of tuition fees is under the jurisdiction of the National Assembly, so the city will use its budget to cover the tuition fees of students.
As for students of private and international schools, their tuition fees will be negotiated by the schools and parents, Hieu added.
The HCMC Department of Education and Training proposed exempting students from tuition fees in the first half of the 2021-2022 school year at a meeting of the municipal People’s Council on August 24 to reduce the financial burden on parents amid the pandemic.
The department also worked with schools at the beginning of the school year, asking them not to increase tuition fees but many schools have still proposed raising the fees by 5%-10% to cover arising costs to maintain teaching and learning amid the pandemic. Hieu said the tuition fee hike is currently very high.
He noted that 80% of teachers in the city had got the first Covid-19 vaccine shot. The department planned to coordinate with the municipal Department of Health to vaccinate students aged from 12.
For the 2021-2022 school year, HCMC has some 1.71 million students, up 31,000 over the previous school year.
Before HCMC, Danang and Quang Ninh had decided to exempt students from tuition fees for the 2021-2022 school year.
