Conditions and procedures for establishing a private preschool

Recently, many customers contacted AMI to advise on conditions for establishing a private preschool. To answer questions and support customers, we would like to introduce the article about the conditions and procedures for establishing a private preschool.

Currently, conditions and procedures for establishing private preschool are quite specific and strict. Organizations and individuals wishing to establish and bring private preschool into operation must meet the conditions prescribed by the laws.

Conditions for establishing a private preschool:

According to Article 3 of Decree 46/2017/ND-CP, in order to establish a private preschool, organization and individual must meet the following conditions:

• The proposal for establishment of a preschool must be consistent with the local socio-economic and educational network development plan approved by the state regulatory authority.
• The proposal for establishment of a preschool must clearly define preschool objectives, missions, curriculum framework and outline; land, facilities, equipment and intended construction site; organization and personnel structure, financial and other resources; guidelines and strategies for construction and development.

Procedures for establishing a private preschool:

1. Documents:

• The application form for approval of establishment of a preschool prepared by an organization or individual in which necessity for establishment, proposed name and location intended for construction of the premises for child care, parenting and education activities must be clearly specified;
• The proposal for establishment of a preschool.

The proposal should specify total proposed capital necessary for execution of plans, provide assurance that child care, parenting and education activities will be performed in a normal manner during 03 first years of establishment and subsequent years, and give a clear explanation for feasibility and legitimacy of finances for construction and development of a  preschool over periods of time;

2. Implementation procedures:

• Organization or individual shall submit an application, whether directly or by post, to the district-level People’s Committee;
• Within the duration of 05 business days from the receipt of all required valid documents, the district-level People’s Committee shall be responsible for commanding the Subdepartment of Education and Training to organize the assessment of realistic conditions concerning establishment of a preschool; within the duration of 15 business days, the Subdepartment of Education and Training shall take charge and cooperate with relevant specialized divisions to give their assessment opinions to the President of the district-level People’s Committee;
• Within the duration of 05 business days from the receipt of written assessment opinions from the Subdepartment of Education and Training and other relevant specialized divisions, if all regulatory requirements have been met, the President of district-level People’s Committee shall issue a decision on establishment or approval of establishment; in case of failure to meet stated requirements, the President of the district-level People’s Committee shall send a written response in which reasons for refusal to issue the decision on establishment or approval of establishment should be clearly specified.
• Within the duration of 02 years after the date of entry into force of the decision on establishment or approval of establishment, if the requesting preschool fails to obtain permission to perform its educational activities, that decision shall be annulled.

After being granted the establishment decision, private preschool may only go into educational operations when meeting the following conditions:

1. Obtain the decision on establishment or the decision on approval of establishment, issued by the President of district-level People’s Committee.
2. Own land, school head office, facilities and equipment that meet requirements, help maintain and develop educational activities as well as satisfy the following specific requirements:

• The preschool must be located within the precincts of a residential zone in compliance with regulations on safety and environmental sanitation;
• The total area of project site is divided into multiple spaces used for building infrastructural facilities, playgrounds, roads and growing landscaping plants. The average area of project site must be at least 12 m2 per a child in lowland, delta and midland regions (except municipal and urban regions); 08 m2 per a child in municipal, urban, mountainous and island regions;
• As for administrative subdivisions short of unoccupied land, it shall be possible that the building area is replaced by the floor area and the stipulated area of vacant land must be adequate;
• The private preschool may rent unused head offices, facilities and equipment which are state-controlled or owned by public educational institutions for the purpose of organization of educational activities as per applicable laws and regulations.
• The private preschool may rent a part or the whole of the available reserves of state-owned houses and infrastructure facilities for use in educational activities in accordance with the Government’s regulations on incentives for private sector involvement in the sector of education, vocational education, healthcare, culture, sports, environment and judicial assessment.   Rental of educational equipment and facilities which have not yet been operated at the maximum capacity by public service entities in the education sector shall be subject to applicable legislation on management and use of state-owned
• The preschool must build walls to separate its space from the outside;
• The construction project is divided into the following blocks:
• Block of child care and nursery education classrooms, e.g. general activity gathering classrooms, sleeping classrooms, toilets and play grounds, which must ensure conformity with the specified regulations;
• Block of learning classrooms, e.g. physical education classrooms, art education classrooms or multifunctional classrooms;
• Block of dining rooms, e.g. kitchen spaces and warehouses;
• Block of administrative rooms, e.g. school offices, rector’s offices, vice rector’s offices, administrative management offices, healthcare rooms, security rooms, staff rooms, toilets intended for teachers, officers, employees, and parking lots for teachers, officers and employees;
• Play grounds, e.g. play grounds for child groups or classes; commonly-shared play spaces
• Equipment, toys, supplies, instructional materials on child care and education must be available in accordance with regulations laid down by the Ministry of Education and Training.

3. Employ an adequate staff of administrative officers, teachers and employees that are structured in a proper manner and meet stipulated standards for provision of early childhood education programs and organization of educational activities.
4. Maintain an sufficient amount of financial resources as required by laws in order to ensure continued operation and development of educational activities.
5. Have the statutes of organization and operations of the preschool.

Procedures for pre-school goes into educational operations

1. Documents:

• The request form for the license to carry out educational operations;
• The duplicate copy derived from the original register, the certified duplicate copy derived from the original copy or the duplicate copy with the original copy for verification purposes of the decision on establishment or the decision on approval for the establishment of the preschool;
• The list of officers holding important positions, such as the rector, vice rectors, heads of specialized groups, with their professional qualifications; the list of teachers with their professional qualifications; employment contracts signed between a preschool and each managerial officer or each teacher;
• Early childhood education curriculum and syllabus for offer of early childhood education program;
• The inventory of classrooms, working rooms, facilities and equipment items meeting stipulated requirements;
• The legal confirmation document on the title to land or the agreement on rental of a preschool of which the minimum term is 05 years; legal confirmation document on the available amount of money currently managed by a preschool to ensure legitimacy and compliance with the commitment that such amount is only used for paying construction and other recurrent costs incurred by the preschool upon receipt of permission for educational operations; the plan for capital mobilization and allocation which assures stable operations of the preschool for the next period of 05 years that starts from the date of receipt of permission for enrolment;
• The statutes of organization and operation of the preschool.

2. Implementation procedures:

• The preschool shall send the Subdepartment of Education and Training 01 set of documents, whether directly or by post;
• The Subdepartment of Education and Training shall receive and arrange to assess the submitted set of documents.  If the submitted set of documents is invalid, a written notification of contents that require modification must be sent to the preschool within the duration of 05 business days of receipt of these documents; if such submitted documents are valid, the plan to carry out the field inspection at the office of preschool must be given;
• Within the duration of 15 business days from the date of notice of the plan to carry out the field inspection, the Subdepartment of Education and Training shall play the leading role and cooperate with other relevant specialized subdepartments in organizing field inspection activities;

Within the duration of 05 business days, if all regulatory requirements have been met, the Head of the Subdepartment of Education and Training shall issue a decision on permission for educational operations; in case of failure to meet stipulated requirements, the written notification must be sent to the preschool and clearly define reasons for refusal to give approval.

Above are conditions and procedures for establishing a private preschool, if you need advice and support, please contact AMI Law Firm.