Kids join a reading session at a private kindergarten in Đà Nẵng City. The beach city will provide free schooling for all students from kindergarten to high school in 2023-24. — Photo courtesy of Phương Chi

ĐÀ NẴNG — The central city’s People’s Council has approved free schooling for students from kindergarten to high school in 2023-24 with a budget of VNĐ408 billion ($16.3 million).

The decision was ratified at the council's working session earlier this year, making it the only city in Việt Nam to offer free education this year.

It’s the third year the beach city has applied subsidies to fund education, with the goal being to ease the financial burden caused by COVID-19 in 2020-22.

The city’s council said free education would apply to all state-owned and private schools in the city, but not to foreign-invested ones.

Each student had to pay a monthly school fee from VNĐ50,000 to 300,000 in previous years, but they will be offered a nine-month term free for the 2023-24 school year.

The city's budget will provide VNĐ316 billion for state-owned schools and VNĐ92 billion for private schools.

The central city was also the first in Việt Nam to hold a pilot project on caring for babies from six to 18 months at 21 public kindergartens as preparation for the city’s social-security master plan for 2020-25.

A number of foreign-invested kindergartens are operating in the city providing services for expats and those looking for international curriculums.

The city, in cooperation with the American Half the Sky Foundation, opened the One Sky kindergarten at the Hòa Khánh Industrial Zone, the first care centre and kindergarten for children aged from six months to six years.

Children play in a yard in a morning exercise class at the Self Wing school. Photo courtesy of Trần Song Bình Dương

The Japanese JP Holdings Group also operated the Japanese-led COHAS Đà Nẵng, or Smile School, for children ages one to six, while Leave a Nest, an education organisation from Japan, with the Self Wing Việt Nam Company, launched a project on nature research and education for students at secondary schools in the city.

During the meeting, Đà Nẵng also proposed a fund of VNĐ670 billion to upgrade the March 29 Park, which has long been polluted, in 2023-26.

The park will be designed as a core green zone in the plan for a smart city by 2030. — VNS