VietNamNet Bridge – The tuitions for different education levels
have been kept unchanged over the last many years, despite the sharp consumer
price index (CPI) increases. However, this does not mean that the financial
burden on parents has been eased.
“Secondary school students only
have to pay 15,000 dong a month in tuition as stipulated by the State.
The sum of money is not enough to
buy one bowl of pho (soup noodle). Therefore, we do not care much about the
tuitions, which do not play any important role in maintaining the school’s
activities,” said a headmaster of a school in district 1 in HCM City.
It’s obvious that schools do not
care about the modest sources of income, because they would rely on the school
fees the students have to pay, which have been increasing steadily year after
year.
The school fees, in principle,
are not compulsory. However, parents still have to pay the fees spontaneously,
if they want their children to be taken care well by the teachers.
How much a student needs to go to school?
The Ministry of Education and
Training has issued a legal document saying that private tutoring classes must
not be organized at schools under any form.
However, the classes still have
been mushrooming, while students have been forced to go to the classes, or they
would get bad marks at curricular lessons.
The tuitions charged on the
students attending the extra classes are much higher than the official tuition
levels set by the State.
The tuitions are between 150,000
dong and 450,000 dong a month for every student, which are 10-30 times higher
than the official tuitions of 30,000 dong a month for high school student and
15,000 dong for secondary school students.
Tran Mau Minh, Headmaster of the
Tran Van On Secondary School in HCM City, said that the tuition levels set by
the State have become “out of date,” which has forced schools to collect extra
fees from students to get money to maintain schools’ activities.
“I think that tuitions should not
be required from state owned schools. Only the high quality schools should be
allowed to collect fees,” Minh said.
Tuitions low, school fees high
As such, when the tuitions are
low, the school fees would be raised to offset the school budget deficit. As a
result, parents still have to pay high to fund their children’s study at state
owned schools.
Different names have been given
to the school fees set up by schools. Parents are called on to contribute money
to upgrade the schools’ material facilities. Besides, they have to contribute
money to the Youth Union’s fund, parents’ fund, study encourage fund and a lot
of others.
Of course, students also have to
pay higher for day-boarding services, buses because of the inflation.
Schools living on surcharges, not official tuitions
A recent survey has found that
the total school fees collected from students have always been higher than the
total income from tuitions.
In HCM City, for example, schools
collected 296 billion dong in tuitions from students, while they got 698
billion dong from other sources. The figures were 317 billion dong and 751
billion dong, respectively.
Nguyen Thi Huong, whose son goes
to the NTT primary school in Hanoi, said that the boy would return to school in
some more days, while she has been told to pay one million dong, so that the
school can equip with air conditioners in classrooms. Besides, parents would be
asked to pay some more money every year for day-boarding students.
The information that the Hanoi
People’s Council has decided to reduce the tuitions by 30,000-40,000 dong a
month has raised a worry that schools would raise the school fees. If so,
Hanoians would not be see their financial burden eased as expected by the
city’s authorities.
Meanwhile, a headmaster of a
primary school in Hanoi, frankly said that the budget allocated to schools is
always very modest, while school always has to wait for a long time for the
disbursement from the budget.
Therefore, the school has to rely
on the contribution by the parents to maintain normal activities.
Compiled by Mai Chi
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