Reform in upper secondary school governance towards autonomy model: A case study of reality autonomy model in Vietnam

In Vietnam, general education includes primary education, lower secondary education (the period of basic education) and upper secondary education (the period of vocational orientation education). In particular, primary education is compulsory for all children from 6 to 14 years old, is implemented in 5 school years, from first grade to fifth grade. The age of students entering first grade is six years old. Primary education aims to help students form the initial foundations for proper and long-term development of morality, intelligence, physicality, aesthetics and basic skills for students to continue high school. Secondary education is conducted in four school years, from grade six to grade nine. Students entering sixth grade must have an elementary school diploma. Secondary education aims to help students consolidate and develop the results of primary education; have basic secondary education and initial knowledge about technology and career to continue high school, vocational high school, vocational training or enter a working life. High school education is conducted in 3 school years, from grade ten to grade twelve. Students entering tenth grade must have a junior high school diploma. High school education is aimed at helping students consolidate and develop the outcomes of lower secondary education, complete high school education and common knowledge about technology and career guidance for further college education, college, professional secondary school, apprenticeship or enter the working life. Thus, the term general education is a term with broad connotation including primary education, lower secondary education (basic education period) and upper secondary education (education period) career orientation. Within the scope of this research, we Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 June 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202006.0371.v1 © 2020 by the author(s). Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY license. 2 use the term school governance used to mean a mode of action, which is directed toward the goal of being accomplished effectively, by and through others. Governance activities are indispensable activities that arise when people work together to accomplish goals.


Public upper secondary schools in Vietnam
There was a modest rise in the propotion of public upper secondary schools in Vietnam's system of upper secondary school. Calculations by 2017 -2018 academic year showed that public upper secondary schools played the key role in national upper secondary school system, which accounted for 84.4% of total educational institutions.   In general, in recent years, there has also been a slight rise in the number of students at public upper secondary schools. By 2017 -2018, there was 92.2% of students in these institutions, accounting for a major propotion of total upper secondary school students. Regarding geographical aspect, there are public upper secondary schools in all 63/63 provincies/cities, which aims at implementing the policy on national education. At upper sedondary schools, students should be taught general and fundamental subjects. However, in reality, gifted and specialized classes are organized in these schools. In some cities/provinces, there is one or more than one upper secondary school, operating as a gifted school, which focuses on training gifted students only. At the same time, different socio-economic conditions in different regions and areas result in unequal conditions for investment, construction, development and enhancement of upper secondary schools' quality nationalwide. In terms of management hierarchy, the line agency of upper secondary institutions is Department of training and education in a specific local city/province. Consequently, the management mechanism still largely depends on different managing levels, which is inclined to administration. Then, management outcomes can only cover instruction execution and implementation whereas they should aim at proposing development orientation compatible with typical conditions of a specific upper secondary institution. As a result, the quality and equality of education nationwide has not been assured [3,4].

1.2.Characteristics of public upper secondary schools in Vietnam
Followings are some typical features of public upper secondary schools in Vietnam: Firstly, the quality of upper secondary schools is not high, which is lack of competitiveness in comparison with other schools in the same region and in the world: According to the Report on Global capacity competitiveness 2017 -2018 by World Economic Forum (WEF) in 137 countries, the efficiency of Vietnam's educational system ranked 55/137. In the aspect of training and education, Vietnam was number 84 in the rankings and number 7 among ASEAN countries, following Singapore (1 st ), Malaysia (45 th ), the Phillipines (55 th ), Thailand (57 th ), Indonesia (64 th ) and Brunei (67 th ) [5,6].
Secondly, the student-teacher ratio in public school sector is higher than that number in nonpublic one and greater than other countries: Teacher plays a vital role, which largely puts an impact on the quality of upper secondary schools. In addition to a slight decline in the number of teachers in public upper secondary schools (from 137,672 in academic year 2014 -2015 to 135,819 in 2017 -2018), there has been a huge increase in the number of students. As a consequence, the student-teacher ratio in public upper secondary institutions in Vietnam reaches an extremely high level. In academic year 2017 -2018, this ratio in public schools was 7.03, 6 which was 13.49 higher than non-public ones. In comparison with other countries in the same region, the student-teacher ratio in Vietnam in 2013 was at much higher level.

2.2.Legislative regulations on autonomy in public upper secondary schools in Vietnam under the globalization trend
There has been a number of documents issued in order to put into effect the Communist Party's guidelines, policies, roadmaps as well as the Government's perspectives, management in terms of improving the quality of education and innovating operation mechanism of educational institutions, especially public upper secondary schools [8,9]. Followings are specific documents:   Specifically, in public upper secondary schools, being urgent in disbursement might influence the quality of teaching activity, lesson plan and scientific studies [10,11].
❖ Law on use and management of State assets Law on use and management of State assets was issued in 2008. It brought about changes in terms of mechanism and managing hierarchy of the state assets, which must be attached with the market (for instance, allowance of asset purchasing activities; transference of land use right; asset, land lease based on market price). However, the limitation of this law is related to its partial allowance of autnommy right to working units; this leads to a big waste when assets are used at low efficiency and effectiveness in these agencies (including public upper secondary schools). Law on cadres and civil servants 2008, and Law on public employee 2010 clearly differentiate responsibilities of civil servants and employees. This makes it more flexible in managing the school's staff, teachers and workers, which no longer depends on civil authority relation. For example, a teacher can change his/her working position; ask for allowances and salary in accordance with the position and missions. This is an attracting point for teachers to work in the long run for the schools. However, this regulation also requires schools' continuous improvement and enhancement in physical and mental life for the teaching staff. In order to achieve this goal, schools must be provided with autonomy at a high level so that they can increase the productivity and efficiency, which creates a financial source huge enough for the rise in competitiveness to attract labour. i. Public service units with self assurance of regular expenses and investment expense, ii. Public service units with self assurance of regular expenses, iii. Public service units with partial self assurance of regular expenses, iv. Public service units with Government's assurance of regular expenses.
Secondly, the autonomy of these units in implementing their missions, and organization of human resource as well as finance is regulated in parallel with their kind of public service units.
The general rule is that the more these units can self assure their operation expenses, the higher level of their autonomy is. This can encourage these units to increase their income and gradually decrease provision from the state budget. In specific, the increase in salary provision helps to step by step transform these units to the type of self assurance of regular expenses and that of both regular expenses and investment expense. In specific, public service units with self assurance of regular expenses and investment expense are provided with a great autonomy right such as making their own decision in the number of employees, borrowing priviledged capital from the state or being supported with interest for investment projects based on borrowing capital from credit organizations as regulated, making decision of income-supplemented budget without the restriction of income-supplemeted budget regulations like other units (units with self assurance of regular expenses are restricted to optimal 3 supplementing times of salary budget for compatible ranks, grades, positions and allowances regulated by the state; units with partial self assurance of regular expenses are restricted to optimal 2 times, units with the state's assurance of regular expenses are restricted to optimal 1 time).

In terms of budget establishment and extraction
According to this Decree, every year, after the complete accounting of all expenses, tax payment and other possible payments (if there are) as regulated; the amount of income-expense differences can be extracted to establish budgets for public service development; budgets for added income; budgets for welfare and awards. In addition, this Decree also allows all units to extract those differences for other budgets as regulated by the law, which is appropriate with reality.

In terms of extraction amount
It should be based on the autonomy level as the followings: Regarding budgets for public Government's assurance of regular expenses extract an amount equal to no more than salary and payment of one month.

In terms of autonomy in financial transaction
In Fourthly, public service units are allowed to apply the same financial mechanism as business.
The Decree 16 clarifies that units with self assurance of regular expenses are approved to use the same financial mechanism as business (one member limited liability company with 100% charter    Tuition fee is the main source of revenue for many upper secondary schools nowadays.

In terms of tuition fee
However, the current tuition fee for public schools is still regarded as remarkably low. As stated in the above analysis, the tuition ceiling for public schools is regulated in Decree 86/2015/NĐ-CP regarding the collection and management of tuition fees from 2015 to 2021. The tuition fee in some public upper secondary schools has increased as a result of their approval on the Scheme for Reforming the operating mechanism and finance mechanism in educational units.
Nevertheless, the increasing amount is insignificant and the current tuition fee is still regarded as a considerably large amount of capital for economically disadvantaged stutdents. Therefore, it can be seen that increasing tuition fee in public upper secondary schools is necessary. However, appropriate financial solutions for economically disadvantaged students are required to be concurrently carried out to prevent the widening in social stratification in quality educational units.

In terms of other revenues
Being financially independent, these schools, in addition to revenue generated from tuition fee complying with State's regulations, all make great efforts to diversify their revenue sources by collecting service fees. This is also the primary solution to increase their revenue. Revenues from various services such as parking fees, payments for cafeteria rentals, dormitory fees… barely make up for derived expenses and regulated taxes. These services are operated according to student-based principle which leads to a comparatively low amount of revenue. To sum up, although the revenue originated from tuition fee increases at the pace of consumer price index throughout each year, it is still considered as low and revenue from other fees' collection still accounts for only a small proportion. Notably, schools without well-known reputation do not meet the standard in students' quantity which results in difficulties in increasing their revenue.
Insufficient revenue may lead to many negative effects such as low entry requirements to increase the number of students, non full-time programs' expansion which considerably increases teachers' working hours and deducts the amount of time spent on academic research.
Addtionally, lack of investment in infrastructure can lead to poor quality of education and training.

Teachers' scale and quantity at High School Education Science (HES)
High School Education Science was founded in 2016 and the quantity and quality of teachers have always been the school's priority. Until now, throughout four years of development, the school teachers' structure is demonstrated in these following figures:

Students' scale at High School Education Science (HES)
Throughout four years of development, the number of students registering for education at HES increases considerably which is presented in figure 3:

Figure 3: Number of students at HES throughout school years
In the first year of establishment, the total of students in all three grades was only 125. Until now, in the school year of 2019-2020, the figure has increased to 337 students which is 2,7 times higher compared to the first year's.

Figure 4: Students and teachers' ratio at High School Education Science (HES) throughout each school year
The ratio between students and teachers at HES ranged from 4,81 to 6,35. Specifically, in the school year of 2019-2020, the ratio was 5,27 while the nation's average ratio was 24. The data proves great efforts of the school's executive board in improving the recruitment process and successfully conducting the government's preferential policies for teachers. This significantly contributes to the enhancement of education and training's quality for students.

Figure 5: Structure of HES's revenue throughout each school year
The total revenue of HES consistently increased throughout each year. In the first two school years, the State Budget served as the main source of the school's revenue by accounting for 78%. However, in two recent school years, by applying the financially independent model, being less dependent on State Budget and conducting many policies to attract more students, the school's revenue from tuition fee and other services had remarkably increased their market share in the total revenue up to 60% averagely.  autonomy degree it manages and utilizes financial outcomes. There are four autonomy degrees which are regulated in the Decree.

3.1.Benefits from Decree 16/CP
The issues the mechanism and policy to encourage social involvements in public administrative services; inspects, examines and imposes penalties for violations in public administrative service supply.

Validity of financial autonomy mechanism
Decree 16/CP is a legal transaction with practical validity. The targets and contents of Decree's regulations related to autonomy, self-responsibilty are presented clearly and legally and suitable with socioeconomic conditions in Vietnam as well as international integration trends.

Effectiveness of financial autonomy mechanism
Decree 16/CP offers outstanding impacts, increases the scale of revenue and staff's income as well as enhances the effects of using funds provided by the State Budget. The number of science research, the amount of investment per student and training quality also improves significantly which meet the market's practical demands.

Flexibility of financial autonomy mechanism
Decree 16/CP provides favorable conditions for schools to be more active and

Equality of financial autonomy mechanism
The individual is open to select the training schedule and programs suitable with his financial situation. Schools hoping to recruit more students are required to actively offer more higher income he will receive. This guarantees the equality in labor and creates the connection between individuals and schools' rights and responsibilities with assigned tasks.

Compulsion in organizational structure of financial autonomy mechanism
Financial autonomy mechanism promotes schools to make more great efforts in saving and using resources effectively and accurately according to the planned targets, enhances the consensus among teachers and staff in establishing the brand of the school.

Acknowledgement of the community
Financial autonomy mechanism undeniably offers new rights for public upper secondary schools and the society in improving the quality of education and training programs. The autonomy is also acknowledged as an inevitable objective trend. implementating a policy to support students which leads to the tuition fee not being calculated according to service fees. The policy is only considered as a means to partly share students' expenses in education. Because low-tuition-fee policy is not timely updated with consumer price and the adjustment of wokers' minimum wage, many schools hesitate to apply the financial autonomy model (as the model equals to the removel of funds provided by the State Budget) and they have to "break the law" to obtain unofficial revenues which leads to a lack of publicity and transparency in their revenue and usage of revenue. Another consequence is that the schools do not have sufficient financial resources to ensure the quality of equipments, classrooms, libraries, teachers and the training program due to low investment expense per student. In order to increase the revenue, most schools have to expand the scale of training, forms of association with other instituons and non full-time training programs which exacerbates the contrast ratio between students and teachers; students and libraries, laboratories… and results in the decrease in the quality of training.

3.2.Limitations in the deployment of Decree 16/CP
Thirdly, the financial autonomy mechanism has yet to provide any sanctions or requests of financial explanation from schools and state authorities which leads to schools' inaccurate and unrealistic establishment and distribution of estimated revenue. For example, the governing body offers a too low estimated revenue or the estimation does not base on previous year's revenue or suffers miscalculation leads to the actual revenue is remarkably higher than the estimated one.
The reason for this is a large number of schools are still afraid that if all sources of revenue are accurately listed and calculated, the total revenue would increase which results in the schools would no longer be partly or completely supported by funds provided by the State Budget and they would be required to apply the model of financial autonomy. Fifthly, increasing tuition fee according to the Government's schedule to ensure a sufficient frame of service fees will create a significant amount of pressure on students, which leads to numerous difficulties in schools' recruitment. Therefore, the decisive issue is that the quality of education and training must be commensurate with the tuition fee. Concurrently, a policy with the aim of supporting and encouraging students should also be concurrently issued.
Sixthly, the transformation of public schools into businesses is likely turn the State's assets into private assets if they are not properly managed. Additionally, the quality of education and training is likely to depend greatly on investors which possibly results in companies operating only for profits.

IV. Conclusion
Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 30 June 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202006.0371.v1 In Vietnam as in many other developing countries in the region, the model of school autonomy has not been formally incorporated into educational management. However, due to the impact of the process of globalization, many ideas of the above model have been shared, penetrated and transformed into the process of renovating educational management in our country through a number of prescribed policies. regulated by the State. Educational policy makers still see the school as a compliant school, responsible for executing administrative orders or regulations communicated by higher management. On the other hand, in terms of autonomy of public non-business units, the extent to which public schools are autonomous and autonomous depends entirely on their ability to guarantee self-sufficiency. Therefore, from the autonomy of the Education Law to the autonomy of the subordinate documents, there is a big difference in awareness as mentioned above. Education managers need to fundamentally and comprehensively renovate education and training to meet the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the context of socialist-oriented market economy and international integration. It is required to separate state management from educational institution administration. However, at present, the policy of separating state management from institution administration has not been mentioned. It is the slow institutionalization of this policy that makes the school autonomy still face major barriers in implementation. The fact that state management has not been separated from education institution governance will lead to the state management agency continuing to keep its intervention in all activities related to direction and decision on major issues of the state.
educational institutions, thereby neutralizing school councils, turning school councils into a formal institution in school organization in Vietnam today.