Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP 2019 on increasing social resources for investment in education development for 2019-2025

RESOLUTION

Increasing the mobilization of social resources for investment in education and training development for the 2019-2025 period^[1]

Pursuant to the June 19, 2015 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW of November 4, 2013, of the 8^th Plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee (the XI^th Congress), on fundamental and comprehensive renewal of education and training to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization under the conditions of the socialist-oriented market economy and international integration;

On the basis of considering and evaluating the results of implementation of the Government’s policies and instructions on socialization of education and training and vocational education activities (Resolution No. 05/2005/NQ-CP of April 18, 2005, Decree No. 69/2008/ND-CP of May 30, 2008, and Resolution No. 40/NQ-CP of August 9, 2012);

Pursuant to the Government’s Resolution No. 08/NQ-CP of January 24, 2018, promulgating the Government’s action program to implement Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW of October 25, 2017, of the 6^th Plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee (the XII^th Congress), on further renovation of the organizational system and improvement of the quality and effectiveness of operation of public non-business units;

In furtherance of opinions of the Government’s members,

RESOLVES:

After 10 years’ implementation of the Party’s and State’s policies on accelerating the socialization of education and training, the mobilization of off-budget resources via contributions and investment of organizations, individuals, enterprises, the community and people (below referred to as social resources) for education and training has achieved certain results, considerably attracting resources for investment in education and training development, especially the development of non-public education institutions. So far, there are 2,955 non-public education institutions in localities among 44,228 education institutions nationwide (accounting for 6.68%) with 1.35 million pupils and students among 22.5 million pupils and students nationwide (accounting for 6%); and creating nearly 100 thousand jobs for teachers and laborers.

As for higher education, there are 65 non-public higher education institutions with 244,000 students, accounting for 13.8% of the total number of students nationwide; 5 foreign higher education institutions are now operating in Vietnam, training over 5,000 students each year. Vietnamese higher education institutions have implemented more than 500 joint training programs with more than 200 foreign education institutions.

As for vocational education, by the end of 2018, the country has 1, 948 vocational education institutions (397 colleges, 519 intermediate schools, and 1,032 vocational education centers), of which 677 are private and foreign-invested vocational education institutions (accounting for 34.7%).

The development of non-public education and training institutions from social resources has helped promote the application of advanced approaches to education in the world and increase education quality to meet the requirements for industrialization, modernization and international integration.

In addition to the above-mentioned achievements, limitations are still seen in the mobilization of social resources for education and training:

- The total amount of social resources attracted to the non-public sector remains far below potential. At present, there are more than 3,200 socialized investment projects only in the field of education and training with a registered capital amount of over VND 53 trillion. These sources are mobilized mainly from individuals via tuition fees and voluntary contributions; the participation and contribution of organizations, enterprises and overseas Vietnamese intellectuals remain limited.

- The attraction of social resources to public education and training institutions remains at a low pace. Despite the fact that many new policies have been adopted along the line of strengthening autonomy and accountability (especially for financial issues) of public institutions and further accelerating socialization of education through preferential policies on taxation, land, credit, etc., the autonomy mechanism has just been applied to  higher education; investment and cooperation activities between the private sector and public education institutions in forms of affiliation, business cooperation, public-private partnership, etc., are still at a small scale, thus failing to create a breakthrough in the aducation system.

The above-said shortcomings and limitations are firstly attributed to awareness of management authorities, learners and the society. Public schools are commonly put before and thought to be more trustable than private schools; dependence and reliance on grants from the state budget remain a common phenomenon; socialization policies are implemented in a irresolute, irregular and unmethodical manner, while development planning for the education system (covering both public and non-public institutions) does not adhere to the principle of demand-supply balance in the long term; and the publication, dissemination and provision of guidance on socialization policies are not paid with due attention.

A comparatively sufficient number of documents have been issued, demonstrating the Party’s and Government’s policies on mobilization of social resources with viewpoints, vision and orientations for renewal in the long run. However, a bottleneck lies in the implementation of such policies. The Government agrees that there must be an immediate solution for fundamentally tackling existing limitations and weaknesses detected over the past time, especially in the implementation of policies so as to create substantial changes in mobilization of social resources for education and training.

I. VIEWPOINTS

1. Social resources are very important and need to be attracted so as to account an incremental part in the total social expenditure for education and training development, especially against the backdrop of Vietnam’s deeper and wider international integration. The Government encourages and creates favorable conditions for domestic and foreign investors to invest in education and training development at all education grades and training levels.

2. The mobilization of social resources for education and training does not aim to replace but constitutes an important source of supplements to the state budget, thus contributing to increase the total investment for education and training, increasing the effectiveness of use of the state budget at public institutions, and concentrating investment on sectors, localities and subjects which private investors do not wish to make or are incapable of making investment in; to encourage public education and training institutions to cooperate, form a joint-venture or affiliate with non-public institutions; and to transform a number of public non-business units in localities with appropriate conditions into non-public ones.

3. The socialization of education and training must be considered a target in setting local socio-economic development orientations. Depending on specific socio-economic conditions and situation in each period, local education administration agencies shall advise local administrations on determination of socialization targets that need to be obtained, ensuring the harmonious development between public and non-public education institutions.

II. OBJECTIVES

1. General objectives:

To intensify the mobilization of social resources to create a notable and practical change in the attraction, use and management of investment resources from domestic and foreign individuals and organizations for education and training development, and increase the quality of human resource education and training to meet the requirements of the Forth Industrial Revolution and international integration.

2. Specific targets:

To intensify the mobilization of social resources and boost the development of non-public education institutions for them to account for 8.75% and 13.5% of the total number of education institutions nationwide with 8.9% and 16% of learners by 2020 and 2025, respectively, specifically as follows:

- For preschool education, especially in industrial parks, export processing zones, areas with a high urbanization rate or undergoing a fast growth in the number of preschoolers due to mechanical movement of population, to strive for the target that by 2020, non-public preschools will make up at least 20% of the total number of preschools in the areas, admitting around 25% of children; by 2025, the figures will be 25% and 30%, respectively.

- For general education, by 2020, non-public institutions and their pupils will account for 2.3% and 2.6%, respectively; by 2025, the figures will be 2.7% and 3%, respectively.

- For higher education, by 2020, non-public higher education institutions will account for 28% with 18% of students; by 2025, the figures are 30% and 22.5%, respectively.

- For vocational education, by 2020 and 2025, non-public vocational education institutions will account for 35% and 40%, respectively.

III. IMPLMENTATION SOLUTIONS AND TASK ASSIGNMENT

1. Implementation solutions

a/ Institutional improvement:

- To review the system of promulgated legal documents and policies on socialization, to systemize regulations on mobilization of social resources for education by sector and group so as to detect regulations which are overlapping, inconsistent or insufficient and propose appropriate amendment, supplementation, replacement or annulment; to promptly update new relevant policies and orientations on socialization;

- To improve the legal framework on the legal position, rights, responsibilities and obligations of individuals and organizations investing in education and non-public education institutions; and on the use of off-budget financial funds;

- To renew the mechanisms on allocation of resources, management and distribution of state budget funds along that line that the State will ensure funds for investment in basic and essential public non-business services (preschool and general education) and provide support directly to policy beneficiaries instead of education institutions and shift from equal distribution mechanism to order placing mechanism;

- To formulate and promulgate policies on interests of teachers and education administrators who are employed by and working in non-public education institutions (including also non-public vocational education institutions), ensuring their interests are at least equal to those of teachers working in public education institutions.

b/ Improvement of the investment environment:

- To review investment conditions and tax and land policies in the education and training sector; to intensify administrative procedure reform, remove unnecessary procedures, and simplify order and procedures for investors; to step up the application of information technology to ensure smooth and transparent information; and promptly respond to investors’ queries in the course of establishment and operation of non-public education institutions.

- To ensure the equal treatment and non-discrimination between and create a fair and transparent competitive environment for public and non-public education institutions and their learners so that they all have access to education opportunities and benefit from the Party’s and State’s education development policies. As for ODA loans: Non-public education institutions may access to, and benefit from ODA loans in accordance with relevant laws; as for foreign loans (ODA loans and concessional loans): Non-public education institutions are not entitled to capital from these loans; as for domestic credit loans: non-public education institutions may access to, and benefit from domestic preferential credit loans (if any);

- To create favorable conditions regarding visas and work permits to encourage domestic and foreign intellectuals, entrepreneurs and enterprises that are operating in Vietnam or overseas to contribute their efforts and intelligence for, and invest in education and training development.

c/ Intensification of the grant of autonomy to public education institutions:

To continue renewing the management mechanism of public non-business units providing public non-business services regarding organization and personnel, finance and property, income distribution, cooperation, joint venture, affiliation, etc., in the spirit of Resolution No. 19-NQ/TW of the 6^th Plenum of the Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee (the XII^th Congress),on further renewal of the system of organization and management, and raising the quality and effectiveness of use of public non-business units; the Government’s Decree No. 16/2015/ND-CP of February 14, 2015, on the autonomy mechanism applicable to public non-business units, and relevant legal documents, in order to attract contributions and donations of domestic and foreign individuals, organizations and enterprises in different forms, helping relieve the State’s burden for provision of public services in the education sector, creating additional sources for investment in and renewal of physical foundations and teaching equipment and technologies to increase education quality up to advanced levels in the region and the world, attaching importance to the following solutions:

- To accelerate the provision of public non-business services in the education sector under the market mechanism, clearly identifying public non-business service providers which are not funded with the state budget and those entitled to decide on their tuition fees and fee rates to cover their reasonable expenses and have accumulation with a view to attracting investors from non-state economic sectors to provide education services;

- To renew the structure of state budget use toward increasing investment in physical foundations of education institutions, raising autonomy and accountability of education institutions to incrementally increase their revenues to cover current expenditures. To promote the application of the autonomy mechanism to public education institutions, firstly vocational education and higher education institutions. To encourage public education institutions to apply financial autonomy;

- To incrementally conduct investment in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) in education in a pilot manner, firstly projects on development of educational infrastructure facilities.

d/ Intensification of conditions for education quality assurance and inspection:

- To review, supplement and promulgate regulations on assurance and inspection of education quality, including mechanisms and policies forcing training institutions to conduct inspection of education quality and training programs;

- To implement education quality inspection in all education grades and training levels, especially in higher education and vocational education; to publicize conditions for education quality assurance and results of education quality inspection of education institutions;

- To intensify supervision examination, periodical examination and specialized examination of the socialization of public and non-public education institutions in order to early detect limitations, difficulties and problems and work out measures to support or guide the handling or propose competent agencies to handle; to impose penalties on education institutions which do not comply with regulations.

dd/ Further stepping up information and communications work:

- To widely disseminate policies on socialization so that all related entities (management agencies, investors, public and non-public units, and the entire society) will have proper and sufficient awareness about and effectively implement policies on mobilization of social resources for education, to tackle and then abolish preconception about and discrimination among public and non-public education institutions;

- To publicize, disseminate, and organize training courses for investors and managers of non-public education institutions on the State’s policies as well as rights and obligations of donors and investors of education institutions;

- To step up investment promotion at home and abroad; to integrate contents for disseminating and encouraging foreigners and overseas Vietnamese to invest in and contribute to education into agendas of official diplomatic and people-to-people diplomatic programs, conferences, events and activities;

- To attach importance to recognizing and honoring organizations and individuals that make contributions or donations to education; to commend, and mobilize people to follow, typical examples of contribution to the educational career;

- To further organize refresher training in legal and professional knowledge to improve capacity of cadres and civil servants of management agencies and education institutions in attraction of resources and management of mobilized resources.

2. Task assignment

a/ The Ministry of Education and Training shall:

- Regularly review conditions for investment and operation in the education and training sector to remove unnecessary conditions, and simplify administrative procedures;

- Assume the prime responsibility for studying and proposing the Government to promulgate criteria for identifying, and mechanisms and policies applicable to, for-profit, and not-for-profit non-public education institutions;

- Guide localities to attach importance to developing non-public education institutions included in the master plan on the network of education institutions and education development strategies and plans;

- Issue regulations allowing non-public education institutions to proactively implement their teaching and learning programs on the condition that they comply with requirements on the time period and graduation standards issued by the Ministry as well as its announced commitments; conduct examination, evaluation and inspection based on graduation results; appoint their teachers and managers to participate in training and refresher training courses; and receive support with teaching equipment and school materials like public education institutions;

- Encourage education institutions to attract domestic and foreign experts for cooperation, collaboration or working with them;

- Assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance in, guiding the implementation of the Government’s Decree No. 63/2018/ND-CP of May 4, 2018, on investment in the form of public-private partnership in the education sector; propose the transformation of a number of public education institutions into non-public ones in areas with appropriate conditions.

b/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall:

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training in reviewing conditions for investment and operation in the education and training sector;

- Assume the prime responsibility for appraisal of capital sources and capacity of balancing public investment capital contributed to PPP projects in the education and training sector; summarize public investment plans on implementation of PPP projects in the education and training sector in medium-term and annual public investment plans.

c/ The Ministry of Finance shall:

- Review and propose amendments to tax regulations, aiming to encourage education and training institutions to exercise financial autonomy and reserve accumulations for investment;

- Review, amend and supplement or propose competent authorities to amend or supplement current legal documents on use of off-budget funds, especially donations,  assistances and charitable contributions of domestic and foreign organizations and individuals;

- Review and improve policies on socialization of preschools and general education institutions in localities with high potential of socialization;

- Review and improve incentive and preferential mechanisms and policies to facilitate the provision of public non-business services under the market mechanism and promote the socialization of the provision of public non-business services.

d/ The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs shall:

- Formulate and submit to the Government a decree on policies to encourage enterprises to participate in vocational education activities;

- Guide localities to attach importance to developing non-public vocational education institutions which are included in local master plans on the network of vocational education institutions, and strategies and plans on vocational education development;

- Assume the prime responsibility for formulating policies on enterprises’ responsibilities for investment in training of human resources serving vocational education, especially high-quality human resources, human resources involved in spearhead business lines, and responsibilities of sectors, socio-political organizations, communities and families in contributing to, and participating in, vocational education activities;

- Regularly review conditions for investment and operation in the vocational education sector to adjust and remove unnecessary ones; study the simplification of order and procedures for grant and extension of work permits for foreigners who are teaching and conducting scientific researches in Vietnam;

- Organize bidding, order placing and assign tasks on the provision of public non-business services funded with the state budget under regulations for non-business vocational education institutions, regardless of their ownership forms;

- Formulate and promulgate techno-economic norms for training to serve as a basis for valuation of public non-business services funded with the state budget in the education and training sector;

- Inspect, examine, supervise and guide the socialization of vocational education institutions.

dd/ The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall:

- Continue reviewing and improving land-related incentive and preferential mechanisms and policies to create conditions for accelerating the provision of public non-business services under the market mechanism and promote socialization of the provision of public non-business services;

- Promulgate specific guidelines for localities to prioritize land areas serving education in their land master plans; study the simplification of the order and procedures for land allocation and land lease serving non-public education development.

e/ The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shall:

- Intensify external information activities and investment promotion in the education sector;

- Encourage, and propose policies to create favorable conditions for, foreigners and overseas Vietnamese to invest in, and support education development in the country.

g/ The Ministry of Information and Communications shall:

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training in disseminating and increasing awareness of people of all strata about the Party’s and State’s policies on mobilization of social resources for education, interests and obligations of organizations and individuals making donations and investing in education; attach importance to detecting, honoring and multiplying those that set typical examples in making donations and contributions to education;

- Intensify the dissemination and education to increase the awareness of people of all strata on the fair and equal rights between public and non-public education institutions and between learners in these institutions to access to education and benefit from education development policies.

h/ Provincial-level People’s Committees shall:

- Formulate plans and roadmaps for attracting social resources for education development in localities; prioritize the integration of contents on socialization and development of non-public education institutions in development programs and plans in conformity with  local socio-economic development conditions and levels and affordability of local people;

- Implement and review master plans on the network of education institutions toward refraining from expanding public education institutions but making investment in a focused manner and reserving state budget funds for areas with difficult socio-economic conditions or a number of key education institutions; create conditions for transformation of public preschools and general education institutions into non-public ones in areas with high potential of socialization; intensify financial autonomy in public education institutions under appropriate roadmaps for each education grade; proactively channel and set orientations for parents and learners to select education institutions models regardless of whether they are public or non-public;

- Allocate land areas for education, ensuring that land allocated or leased to project owners are cleared; properly provide refund for investors who make advance payment for compensation and resettlement support of socialization projects under the plans approved by competent authorities; promptly certify tax incentives (during and after the construction period); and expeditiously handle investors’ recommendations;

- Adopt specific policies on use of local budgets to provide interest-rate and funding support for investment in physical foundations and procurement of equipment, financial assistance, organization of refresher training courses on management skills and professional operations for teachers and education administrators  of non-public education institutions (especially preschools in crowded localities, industrial parks and export processing zones) in conformity with budget capacity and socio-economic development conditions of localities;

- Clearly identify responsibilities of heads of state management agencies in localities regarding the socialization of the education sector;

- Intensify the examination and supervision of non-public education institutions in localities, attaching importance to requirements on publication of tuition fees, financial disclosure and quality commitment.

IV. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

1. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, and chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall, based on their assigned functions, competence and tasks, direct the implementation of this Resolution, and send a report on implementation results to the Ministry of Education and Training before December 10 every year for summarization and reporting to the Government and the Prime Minister.

2. The Ministry of Education and Training shall assume the prime responsibility for monitoring, examining, and evaluating the implementation of this Resolution, and summarize and make a report on the mobilization of resources of domestic and foreign organizations and individuals for investment in education and training, and send it to the Government and the Prime Minister.

3. Public and non-public education institutions shall strictly implement the State’s policies and regulations, and constantly improve the quality of education and training and scientific research, and comply with the operational targets set forth in their establishment schemes and organization and operation regulations.-

On behalf of the Government
Prime Minister
NGUYEN XUAN PHUC