From May 1, ethnic minority and mountainous students will receive support for food, housing, and rice.

Recently, the Government issued Decree No. 66/2025/ND-CP stipulating policies for nursery children, students, and trainees in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, coastal and island areas, and educational institutions with nursery children and students enjoying the policy. This Decree takes effect from May 1.

Policy beneficiaries

The Decree stipulates the subjects of application including: Children in kindergartens, students, and trainees, including: Children in kindergartens studying at preschools; boarding students studying at general education institutions; boarding students studying in continuing education programs at junior high and high schools; ethnic boarding students studying at general education institutions assigned by competent authorities to carry out the task of educating ethnic boarding students, Viet Bac Highlands High School, Friendship School 80, Friendship School T78; university preparatory students studying at university preparatory schools, Viet Bac Highlands High School.

The educational institutions with children in kindergartens and students who are entitled to the policy include: Public preschools that organize meals and naps for children in boarding kindergartens; ethnic minority boarding schools, general education institutions that organize meals and accommodation for boarding students; ethnic minority boarding schools, general education institutions assigned by competent authorities to carry out the task of educating ethnic minority boarding students, pre-university schools, Friendship School 80, Friendship School T78, Viet Bac Highland High School. The above institutions are entitled to the policy in this Decree for ethnic minority boarding and pre-university students.

Policy benefits

The Decree stipulates that children in boarding kindergartens will receive a monthly lunch allowance of VND360,000/child and will receive it for no more than 9 months/school year.

Boarding students and students are supported with food, housing, and rice. Specifically, for food, each student and student is supported with 936,000 VND per month and is entitled to no more than 9 months/school year. Regarding housing, each boarding student and student must provide their own accommodation because the school cannot arrange accommodation in the school or first and second grade students, or disabled students who need to provide their own accommodation near the school for their relatives to take care of, are supported with 360,000 VND per month and are entitled to no more than 9 months/school year. In addition, each student and student is supported with 15 kg of rice per month and is entitled to no more than 9 months/school year.

Meals for students at school in village 4, Tra Thuy commune, Tra Bong district, Quang Ngai province. (Photo: VNA)

As for first grade boarding students who are ethnic minorities and learn Vietnamese before entering the first grade program, they will enjoy an additional 01 month of the above policies.

The Decree stipulates that ethnic minority boarding students and university preparatory students are entitled to policy scholarships, rewards, personal and school supplies, travel expenses, and rice support.

Preschools with children in semi-boarding kindergartens are entitled to the following policies: Financial support to buy paper, comics, crayons, pencils, toys and other learning materials and tools; blankets, mosquito nets and personal items with a budget of 1,350,000 VND/child/school year. Supported with electricity and water for studying and living with a standard of 5KW of electricity/month/child and ^1m3 of water/month/child according to the local price regulations and for no more than 9 months/school year. In places where there are no conditions to provide electricity and water services or there is a power or water outage, the school can use the funds to buy lighting equipment and clean water for children; supported with funds to manage the noontime for the group of children in kindergartens...

Boarding ethnic minority schools enjoy the following policies: Investment in facilities and equipment according to the Government's regulations on investment and operation conditions in the field of education; financial support for purchasing, supplementing, and repairing physical education and sports equipment, musical instruments, television sets, and other items serving cultural, artistic, physical education and sports activities for boarding students with a support level of 180,000 VND/student/school year; financial support for organizing annual health check-ups, setting up a medicine cabinet for shared use by students, purchasing common medicines with a sufficient amount of medicine to meet the requirements of disease prevention and handling of first aid cases with a support level of 180,000 VND/student/school year; Boarding students are supported with electricity and water for studying and living at school with the standard of 15KW of electricity/month/student and 3m3 of water/month/student according to the local price regulations and are entitled to no more than 9 months/school year...

Boarding schools for ethnic minorities and preparatory schools are entitled to financial support policies for catering services for boarding students to eat and stay at school as follows: every 45 boarding students are entitled to 1 support rate of 4,738,500 VND/month, the remaining 20 boarding students or more are counted as 1 rate. In case there are less than 45 boarding students, 1 rate is counted. The support period is not more than 9 months/school year...

Conditions for enjoying the policy

According to Decree 66/2025/ND-CP, boarding students enjoying the policy must ensure one of the following conditions: primary school students and secondary school students studying at general education institutions (or school points) in communes in region III, region II, region I, communes with particularly difficult villages in ethnic minority and mountainous areas, communes with particularly difficult areas in coastal and island areas, houses located 4 km or more from school for primary school students and 7 km or more for secondary school students, or the terrain is difficult, traffic is difficult, must cross the sea, lakes, rivers, streams, passes, high mountains, landslides, rocks...

High school students studying at general education institutions, whose houses are 10 km or more away from school or whose terrain is difficult, and whose transportation is difficult, having to cross the sea, lakes, rivers, streams, mountain passes, high mountains, or landslide areas, and who are in one of the following cases: ethnic minorities whose parents or guardians are permanently residing in communes or villages with special difficulties; Kinh ethnic people who are poor households according to the multidimensional poverty standards prescribed by the Government, whose parents or guardians are permanently residing in communes or villages with special difficulties...

Semi-boarding students studying at a continuing education facility who themselves and their parents or guardians permanently reside in a particularly disadvantaged commune or village, whose houses are 7 km or more away from the place of study for students studying a continuing education program at the lower secondary level, 10 km or more for students studying a continuing education program at the upper secondary level; or whose terrain is difficult, with difficult transportation, having to cross the sea, lakes, rivers, streams, mountain passes, high mountains, or landslide areas, and are in one of the following cases: being an ethnic minority; being a Kinh ethnic group belonging to a poor household according to the multidimensional poverty standards prescribed by the Government.

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/tu-ngay-15-hoc-sinh-dan-toc-thieu-so-va-mien-nui-duoc-ho-tro-tien-an-tien-nha-o-ho-tro-gao-211243.html