The ministry is seeking public feedback on draft amendments to Government Decree 66/2025, which sets out support policies for children and students in ethnic minority, mountainous, coastal and island areas.
The draft proposes extending lunch support to primary and lower secondary school students in disadvantaged ethnic minority and mountainous areas who are not currently covered by semi-boarding assistance schemes.
Eligible groups would include students attending schools in particularly disadvantaged communes and villages, as well as certain students living in other ethnic minority and mountainous areas who meet the proposed criteria.
The amendments would also extend eligibility to students from near-poor households, rather than limiting support to those from poor households.
Students have lunch at Vo Nguyen Giap Secondary School. (Photo: School)
Under the proposal, eligible semi-boarding students would receive VND 1.17 million a month for up to nine months per school year, an increase of VND 234,000, or 25 per cent, from the current VND 936,000.
The maximum annual allowance would rise to VND 10.53 million per student, compared with VND 8.424 million under existing regulations.
Under Government Decree 339/2025, eligible primary and lower secondary students in land-border communes would receive VND 450,000 and eight kilogrammes of rice monthly for up to nine months.
The draft also clarifies eligibility for semi-boarding assistance, requiring students to be unable to travel to school and return home on the same day.
Students who voluntarily attend a more distant school instead of a nearer institution of the same type within their designated catchment area would not qualify.
The proposed changes follow concerns over support for students at Vo Nguyen Giap Secondary School in Dien Bien Province.
Ahead of the 2026-2027 school year, the school's principal appealed for donations of rice and cooking gas to provide meals for 309 students living seven to 15 kilometres from school after funding from a charitable project ended.
According to the Dien Bien provincial government, only 11 of the school's 1,257 students qualified for assistance under Decree 66, despite many facing difficult journeys to school.
The case highlighted shortcomings in eligibility criteria based largely on administrative classifications rather than students' actual circumstances.
On August 31, the Prime Minister ordered a nationwide review of student support policies, calling for eligibility criteria to reflect travel distances, terrain, transport conditions and students' circumstances.
The proposed amendments remain subject to consultation and have not yet taken effect.
