Poor students to find it easier to access online learning

ABO/NDO - Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai has agreed with the Finance Ministry’s proposal to help needy students with electric devices to serve their online learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the ministry’s proposal, students from poor and near-poor families as well as those facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including students whose fathers or mothers died of the disease, will be enabled to get loans to buy computers under support of the “computers and Internet services for children” programme.

Poor students will be provided loans to buy computers for online learning.

According to the ministry, eligible students are those who have no computer and equipment for online study and have not yet received any support in the field.

The People’s Committees of communes and wards are responsible to make and verify the lists of beneficiaries before submitting to the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies for approval.

The maximum value of the loans will be VND7 million (US$307) per student, according to the proposal, which estimates that the total capital for the scheme is about VND3.5 trillion (US$153.86 million). The duration of the loans is under one year with a zero percent interest rate.

Initially, resources for the scheme will come from the VND7.5 trillion credit package that is being implemented by the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies, which was designed for employers to borrow to pay salaries for their employees but received few requests.

The Deputy PM has assigned the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs to coordinate with the Finance Ministry, the State Bank of Vietnam and relevant agencies to work on supplementing the policy regarding the credit package and report it to the Government.

(Source: NDO)