Tuition-free, what fees do students have to pay at the beginning of the school year?

(Dan Tri) - With free tuition, students only have to pay 2 fees according to regulations: health insurance and parking fees.

The Department of Education and Training (DoET) of Nghe An has issued guidelines on revenue and expenditure management for the 2025-2026 school year at public educational institutions in the province.

Pursuant to Decree 238/2025/ND-CP of the Government, from the 2025-2026 school year, students in public educational institutions in the national education system will be exempted from tuition fees. Therefore, according to regulations, students only have to pay 2 fees: health insurance and bicycle parking service.

Nghe An students at the opening ceremony of the 2025-2026 school year (Photo: Hoang Lam).

According to Decree No. 188/2025/ND-CP of the Government effective from July 1, the state budget supports health insurance payments for students at least 50%, so each student must pay the remaining amount of up to 631,800 VND/year.

The fee for bicycle parking services in schools in Nghe An is implemented according to Decision 80/2016/QD-UBND of the People's Committee of Nghe An province. Accordingly, the bicycle parking fee is applied to each area, including Vinh city and old towns at 15,000 VND/month, plains and lowlands at 12,000 VND/month, and highlands at 8,000 VND/month.

For motorbikes and two-wheeled motorcycles, the parking fees in the above areas are 22,000 VND, 18,000 VND and 15,000 VND/vehicle/month respectively.

For service fees, supporting the school's educational activities, the consent of parents must be obtained and based on a plan developed based on the actual needs of students. These fees must be widely announced on the school's website, bulletin board, electronic information portal and through parent meetings.

Schools are not allowed to take advantage of educational funding to force parents to contribute (Illustration: Hoa Duong).

Service revenues include: teaching 2 sessions/day at educational institutions; organizing boarding in public educational institutions; caring for and nurturing children in public educational institutions on holidays, summer days and programs, enhanced educational activities and services for students.

Voluntary revenues and expenditures include: funding for educational institutions (socialized revenues), operating expenses of the Parents' Representative Board, Youth Union Fund, and Pioneer Fund.

As for educational funding, it must be done on the principle of voluntariness, publicity, and transparency. Schools must not force, must not specify an average funding level, and must not specify a minimum funding level.

The Department of Education and Training requires schools to absolutely not assign fundraising targets to each class or each homeroom teacher. Schools are not allowed to take advantage of educational funding to force contributions and do not consider fundraising as a condition for providing educational and training services (or as a condition for evaluating and ranking in competition).

To effectively implement educational funding, schools must assess the current state of facilities, investment portfolio, local people's lives... to develop a plan to mobilize funding.

The plan to implement the fundraising campaign must be approved by the People's Committee of the commune or ward (for preschool to junior high school levels) and the Department of Education and Training (for high schools and other affiliated educational institutions).

According to the instructions of the Nghe An Department of Education and Training, schools should extend the collection time and not collect multiple fees at one time.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/mien-hoc-phi-hoc-sinh-phai-nop-cac-khoan-nao-vao-dau-nam-hoc-20250916152546645.htm