A private primary school in HCM City’s Gò Vấp District. — Photo https://tieuhocnhuttan.blogspot.com/

HCM CITY — The HCM City Department of Education and Training has proposed a tuition fee subsidy for students at private primary schools, similar to what is offered at their public school counterparts.

Lê Hoài Nam, deputy head of the department, said the Law on Education allows local people’s councils to provide a tuition fee subsidy for private primary schools if provinces or cities do not have enough public schools.

Under the proposal, the subsidy would be more than VNĐ5million (US$216.5) per student for one academic year, the same as the one for public primary schools.

The department will continue to ask for opinions from other relevant departments before the People's Committee considers it for approval, Nam said.

The subsidy is expected to help reduce financial pressure on families if their children cannot study at public schools.

It would also help to reduce overcrowding at public schools, which is a barrier to carrying out the new education programme effectively, Nam added.

Forty to fifty students are often in one classroom, but the Ministry of Education and Training's requirements call for no more than 35 students in each classroom.

With the subsidy, investors will be more willing to pour money into schools, he said.  

For the 2020-2021 academic year, the city has more than 25,000 primary students at private schools. Many of these schools are in districts 12, Tân Phú and Gò Vấp where public schools face pressure from student crowding.    

A monthly subsidy of VNĐ70,000 would be offered to public primary students who study two shifts in one day. The subsidy is expected to be provided in the 2021-2022 academic year.

Public primary schools in the city currently collect fees of less than VND150,000 for teaching two shifts in one day. — VNS