THE SCHOOL STILL OWES BILLIONS OF VND IN STUDENT FEES
Recently, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education issued a series of decisions on supporting living expenses for 7 months in 2023 according to Decree 116 for students in the pedagogical sector. Of which, in the 48th course, which is trained according to the social needs method, the school has more than 1,200 students receiving money with a total amount of nearly 30.8 billion VND. In the 47th course, 1,249 students were paid for 6 months, each person received over 21.7 million VND, the total living expenses were over 27 billion VND. With the training method according to local orders of Long An and Ninh Thuan provinces, in this period, the school also issued a decision to pay support money to students for the first 6 months of this year.
Candidates taking the specialized competency assessment exam of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education this year
However, according to the school representative, currently, students in the education sector will only receive living expenses until the end of February 2023. Since March, students have not received support according to regulations. This representative added: "The school has sent a budget estimate to the Ministry of Education and Training, issued a decision on support but is still waiting for the funds to be transferred". Therefore, according to the school representative, the decisions are available but are still waiting for the budget funds to be transferred to be able to pay students with an amount of up to billions of VND.
Meanwhile, Master Pham Hong Hai, Deputy Head of the Department of Politics and Student Affairs of Da Lat University, said that the school has just received funding to support living expenses for pedagogical students in the first semester of the 2023-2024 school year (February - June). However, the funding for the last 3 months (October - December 2022) is still... pending. The school has issued a payment decision and provided student account numbers, but is still waiting for funding to transfer money to students.
Earlier, in early November, students at the Central Pedagogical College in Ho Chi Minh City also reported that they were owed living expenses for many months. Accordingly, students have only received living expenses for the first two months of the year. Several other schools are also in a similar situation.
Need to determine correct teacher training targets
According to a representative of a teacher training university, the decree is a good policy in teacher training. The draft amendments and supplements to the decree also have adjustments that are more suitable to reality. However, the biggest problem in the implementation of the decree is the delay in paying living expenses for learners, and there is currently no solution to overcome it. According to this person, the key issue is to correctly determine the target for teacher training that is close to the actual needs. On that basis, clearly define the responsibility of the state budget (central and local) to ensure funding for support policies for learners. At the same time, there are stricter regulations for the period after students graduate, especially managing the reimbursement of expenses. From there, avoid the situation of overload in investment in training but not achieving the desired results.
Ha Anh
ADJUSTING THE DECREE TO SUIT REALITY
Decree 116 of the Government stipulates the policy of supporting tuition and living expenses for pedagogical students, effective from the 2021 enrollment period. Accordingly, students majoring in pedagogy who commit to working in the education sector will enjoy tuition support policies and living expenses of 3.63 million VND/month from the state budget. The support period is calculated based on the actual number of months of study at school but not exceeding 10 months/school year.
After 2 years of implementing the above policy, the situation of student teachers owing living expenses has occurred simultaneously in many schools and localities. According to the report of the Ministry of Education and Training sent to the Prime Minister on the implementation of Decree 116 in February this year, the aggregated data from training institutions under the Ministry showed that the funding demand until the end of 2022 is 1,604,628 million VND (more than 1,604 billion VND). The total budget from the state budget allocated to schools under the Ministry is 1,166,205 million VND (more than 1,166 billion VND) - only meeting 73% of the demand. The funding for tuition compensation and living expenses support for student teachers according to Decree 116 is still lacking 438,423 million VND (more than 438 billion VND). The Ministry of Education and Training has sent a document requesting the Ministry of Finance to appraise and report to the Prime Minister for additional funding for units, especially for living expenses for students.
From the issues arising during the implementation process, in mid-August, the Ministry of Education and Training issued a draft Decree amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 116/2020/ND-CP. Accordingly, the Ministry of Education and Training has added new points to the content regulating the level of support according to learning outcomes to motivate pedagogical students and improve quality. From the second year and the following school years, if a student has a poor average academic score or a poor training score, he/she will not be considered for support to pay living expenses. Teacher training institutions shall consider supporting living expenses for pedagogical students according to the school year.
In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training also revised and supplemented contents related to the mechanism for implementing support policies for pedagogical students, the development of budget estimates and budget allocation, the reimbursement of support funds and the responsibilities of related units.
Admissions consulting will be difficult!
After more than 2 years of implementing Decree 116, the situation of student teachers owing living expenses is happening in many schools and localities.
Specifically: at Nha Trang Central Pedagogical College, students enrolled in 2021 will only receive living expenses until the end of November 2022, while students enrolled in 2022 will only receive support money until the end of February 2023.
Ho Chi Minh City Central Pedagogical College is still "owing" living expenses according to Decree 116 of thousands of students.
Hanoi Pedagogical University, Vinh University, Saigon University, Can Tho University, Dong Thap University, Khanh Hoa University... also have a long-term debt of living allowance.
At Tay Nguyen University, pedagogical students enrolled in 2022 have only received living expenses until December 2022. The 2022-2023 school year has ended, the 2023-2024 school year has gone through more than half of the first semester, but students have not yet received enough living expenses support from the previous school year.
The most unusual are the two universities in Thanh Hoa province, Hong Duc University and Thanh Hoa University of Culture - Sports - Tourism. The province had to send a dispatch requesting the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education and Training to report to the Prime Minister to consider supporting more than 87.2 billion VND for students of the 2021 and 2022 courses. The reason is that the number of students enjoying the province's support policy is very large, so despite arranging existing revenue sources, the province's budget is currently unable to balance the funding source to ensure the implementation of the policy of Decree 116.
After more than 2 years of implementing the policy of supporting living expenses for pedagogical students according to Decree 116, the situation of pedagogical students owing living expenses clearly shows that the implementation is facing many difficulties. As a result, students with difficult economic circumstances who choose to study pedagogy fall into a difficult situation, leading to frustration. If this situation continues without a solution soon, it will make the admissions consulting work difficult, and pedagogical students will feel like the attractive promise of 3.63 million VND/month they once heard was just a "windy promise"!
Dai Lam
Source link
Comment (0)