Pedagogy students have their living expenses 'suspended'

Many students of Hanoi National University of Education said they have not received any living allowance for many months.

Difficult is more difficult

Tran Phuong Lien, a second-year student at Hanoi National University of Education, said she signed a commitment to work in the education sector to be exempted from tuition fees and receive 3.63 million VND/month in living expenses from the budget.

However, after paying for the first semester of the first year nearly a year ago, this student has not received any additional support. This causes difficulties for Lien because her family is in difficult circumstances. "Because of the living expenses support, I chose to go to a teacher training college to ease the financial burden on my family," Lien said.

Tran Phuong Lien's difficulties are also the common situation of students at many teacher training colleges across the country. According to Decree 116, from 2021, teacher training students will receive 100% tuition support from the state and 3.63 million VND/month for living expenses.

This fund is taken from the budgets of localities, ministries, and branches, through the form of placing orders with schools. The annual enrollment quota for teachers is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET).

This policy has led many students to decide to enroll in education to reduce family expenses. However, in reality, up to now, education students still owe this living allowance.

Explaining the debt of student living expenses, many teacher training schools said that this reality comes from ordering training according to Decree 116 from localities and the allocation of funds still has many problems.

Localities are not interested in placing orders because this policy stipulates that students must work in the education sector after graduation, otherwise they must reimburse the cost.

Meanwhile, there is no binding mechanism between students and localities. In addition, even when students graduate and return, they still have to take civil servant exams according to the regulations of the Ministry of the Interior and are not sure of passing.

Students of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education during class project work. (Photo: TAN THANH)

Many problems

In a recent report sent to the Government, the Ministry of Education and Training said that the proportion of students who were ordered and assigned tasks by localities only accounted for 17.4% of the number of students enrolled and 24.3% of the total number of students registered to enjoy the policy.

The number of students registered to enjoy the policy is 30,807 people, while the number of localities placing orders is 1,928 and the number of assigned tasks is 5,563. The number of localities implementing assigned tasks and placing orders is 23/63 provinces and cities.

Thus, the number of students who are "trained according to social needs" and are funded by the state budget (through the Ministry of Education and Training) accounts for 75.7% of the number of students who register to enjoy the policy and 82.6% of the number of students enrolled. It can be said that the method of ordering/assigning tasks/bidding for teacher training is not implemented at the level and effectiveness as the main viewpoint of Decree 116.

There are 6 training facilities that have been ordered by local and neighboring localities but have not paid the costs, or have only paid a small part of the costs, including 2 key schools: Hanoi National University of Education and Ho Chi Minh City National University of Education.

This affects training costs, support costs for pedagogical students and causes inequality between pedagogical students who work according to the ordering/assigning/bidding mechanism and pedagogical students who train according to social needs.

Every year, the Ministry of Finance only allocates about 54% of the funding needs for teacher training students of teacher training institutions under the Ministry of Education and Training. Therefore, funding for teacher training students is always behind the training plan, causing difficulties for teacher training institutions and teacher training students.

In addition, the Ministry of Education and Training also said that due to uneven development, differences in resource conditions and educational financial policies between localities, many localities have difficulty in having enough funds to implement ordering/assigning tasks/bidding for teacher training.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the method of ordering and assigning tasks is also not consistent in legal documents. Students who place orders/assign tasks/bid are paid from the local budget but after graduation may not be recruited to work in the local education sector.

Second, paying support funds for pedagogical students from other localities to study is not in accordance with the provisions of the State Budget Law, because local funds are only used to ensure the socio-economic development goals of that locality.

Another problem is that the need to recruit and train teachers is linked to funding for pedagogical students but not linked to the right to recruit. Priority is given to recruiting pedagogical students after graduation, making localities hesitant to allocate funding support but unable to recruit pedagogical students after graduation.

In addition, the People's Committees of the provinces have not paid attention to directing and organizing the assignment to local agencies to implement guidance, monitor and urge pedagogical students who are the subjects of training orders.

Early Payment to Students
Faced with the difficulties of students who have not received living expenses support, Professor Nguyen Van Minh, Principal of Hanoi National University of Education, said that the school must do ideological work and encourage students to share the common difficulties.
For students with special policies and difficulties, the school will provide partial support from its own resources. It is expected that next week, the Ministry of Education and Training will be able to provide support funds. When the money is available, the school will soon pay the students.

Local order on demand

In a recent submission to the Government on amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 116 regulating policies to support tuition fees and living expenses for pedagogical students, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed to maintain the method of assigning tasks and ordering training for pedagogical students.

However, the Ministry of Education and Training proposed that localities are not required to implement this, but depending on the conditions and needs of the localities, they should implement it according to Decree No. 32 of the Government regulating the assignment, ordering or bidding for the provision of public products and services using the state budget from regular expenditure sources.

The Ministry of Education and Training believes that this regulation ensures clear stipulation of the state budget's responsibility to ensure funding for support policies for pedagogical students according to budget decentralization.

For training facilities under central ministries and branches, the central budget ensures funding, for training facilities under local authorities, the local authorities arrange funding for implementation.

"This regulation ensures that pedagogical students will be paid according to the provisions of the 2019 Education Law, and there will no longer be a situation where pedagogical students do not receive or are late in receiving support policies as is currently the case.

At the same time, this regulation still addresses the needs of localities that want to place orders at local training facilities or other training facilities with higher quality," the Ministry of Education and Training stated.

Postpone tuition fees to reduce hardship
A representative of Saigon University said that nearly 1,600 students in 3 courses registered to enjoy the policy under Decree 116. In each course, the school sent information to the People's Committees and Departments of Education and Training of provinces and cities, but most did not respond.
Rarely, in 2021, only Long An and Ninh Thuan announced orders for 34 students. These students have had their first tuition and living expenses paid and are about to receive the second payment. In 2022 and 2023, Long An has sent orders and is taking the next steps to pay their tuition and living expenses.
For the remaining number, the school sent the management unit, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, to resolve the support. "For the past 3 years, we have followed the correct procedures, but currently more than 1,500 students have not received support," said a representative of Saigon University.
Currently, schools are doing many things to support students. For example, at Saigon University, the school has postponed collecting tuition fees to reduce pressure on students, while continuing to make recommendations to the governing body.

(Source: Nguoi Lao Dong)

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