School fees collected at the beginning of the school year must comply with guidelines and reflect actual costs.

Schools in disadvantaged areas are flexible in fundraising.

The heavy rains in mid-September caused Trung Phuc Cuong 2 Primary School (Nam Dan district) to be flooded for nearly a week. When students returned to school after the disruption, parents were understandably worried because the school is located in a low-lying area that experiences annual flooding, causing it to deteriorate quickly.

The Board of Directors of Trung Phuc Cuong 2 Primary School also faces challenges because the school was formed by merging several communes and still has to maintain two school locations, making investment in construction difficult. Social mobilization efforts have only been partially successful, as parents mainly live off agriculture and face many economic hardships.

To ensure adequate facilities for teaching and learning, Trung Phuc Cuong 2 Primary School has done a good job of soliciting sponsorships from businesses and philanthropists for many years.

The most valuable structures are the classroom block and the administrative building, which were invested in by the General Director of Nghi Tam Investment and Tourism Company – a native of the commune – starting in 2003 and continuing to receive funding for renovations over the years.

In addition, the school has also appealed for external funding to purchase facilities and establish a scholarship fund. At the end of September, through generous donors, the school successfully secured 20 computer sets worth 200 million VND to equip the school's computer lab.

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Due to its unique characteristics, the school administration has determined that revenue from social contributions will not be substantial. Meanwhile, the school needs to invest in two campuses annually, requiring a very large sum of money. To ensure minimum infrastructure, before the start of each school year, the school conducts surveys and assessments of existing facilities and develops detailed plans for each investment item, which are then publicly displayed on the school's bulletin board for parents to understand. The implementation process involves communication and mobilization to ensure parents understand the policy and participate in its implementation. For larger expenses, the school will proactively seek external sponsors to alleviate the financial burden on parents.

Ms. Le Thi Lan - Principal of Trung Phuc Cuong 2 Primary School (Nam Dan)

Located in the most disadvantaged area of ​​Thanh Chuong district, Dang Thai Mai High School faces challenges in mobilizing social resources. However, in recent years, all of the school's initiatives have received support from parents in the area. Specifically, each year the school raises between 500 and 700 million VND from parental contributions to invest in facilities and purchase equipment for learning. Simultaneously, through the connections of the school's management board, many sponsors, including former students and local residents, have also joined hands to support the education of children in the commune.

Most recently, Dang Thai Mai High School (Thanh Chuong) received funding for an electronic library, desks for students, and a school sports field. On the part of the classes, the parent associations of each class also proactively mobilized resources to purchase televisions, fans, and other items for use in each classroom.

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The socialization of education is a policy aligned with the goal of joint contribution and development by the State and the people. To build trust among parents and students, schools must ensure that investments in facilities serve their intended purpose and are transparent and accountable. The implementation process should be proactive, aligned with parents' wishes, practical, and relevant to economic conditions, avoiding arbitrary decisions or quick fixes. Funding for individual classes will be managed independently by each class, and after the end of the school year, each class will have the autonomy to dispose of the assets.

Teacher Le Van Thanh – Principal of Dang Thai Mai High School

In line with purpose and ensuring proper revenue and expenditure.

Nearly a month after the start of the new school year, most schools in the province have held parent meetings and announced the initial fees. Besides the mandated fees such as tuition, health insurance, and bicycle fees, parents are particularly interested in social contributions (donations), class funds, and association funds.

Right at the start of the new school year, the Department of Education and Training issued a document guiding the collection and expenditure of funds, which clearly stipulated mandatory fees, voluntary fees, and a number of other fees as prescribed.

Talking about worksocializeAt the beginning of the new school year, Mr. Tran Van Hoa – a parent in Nghi Kim commune (Vinh city) – said: "This year my child is entering grade 6, so the contributions are higher than in other grades because most of the equipment in the classroom has to be purchased from scratch. As a parent, I support the policy of the class and the school, because the purchases in the classroom are to serve the children's learning. Regarding the remaining fees, I think that if implemented correctly according to the guiding documents, they will receive approval."

On online forums, the issue of income and expenditure is also discussed quite a lot. The most frequently mentioned are contributions to club funds, class funds, social contributions, and electronic communication book fees. Some opinions also express concern that every school year classes have to contribute money to buy new cabinets, fans, air conditioners, etc.

Based on practical implementation in schools this year, the collection of fees has been carried out in a fairly systematic manner to minimize excessive fees that cause public outrage.

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"The school has three forms of fundraising: in-kind donations, labor contributions, or cash donations. However, to gain support, we have determined that implementation must ensure compliance with regulations, procedures, and principles outlined in relevant documents, based on the principles of voluntariness, openness, transparency, and without coercion or specifying an average donation amount."

Teacher Dang Ngoc Hiep - Vice Principal of Khanh Son Secondary School (Nam Dan)

Regarding the collection of fees, especially those related to social contributions, schools are required to conduct surveys, develop plans, and obtain approval from local authorities, the Education and Training Departments, or the Provincial Department of Education and Training before implementation. To alleviate pressure on parents, this year the Provincial Department of Education and Training has also requested schools to spread out the collection of fees and avoid collecting multiple fees at once. In addition, policies are being implemented to encourage fee exemptions and reductions for students from disadvantaged families or those with difficult economic circumstances.

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Every year, the Department of Education and Training conducts inspections of revenue and expenditure at schools, and if violations are found, the school principal will be held responsible. The department's guidelines also require that fundraising must adhere to the principles of voluntariness, transparency, and openness; there should be no coercion, no prescribed average or minimum donation amount, and absolutely no fundraising targets should be assigned to individual classes (or homeroom teachers). Furthermore, fundraising for education should not be used to coerce contributions, and fundraising should not be considered a condition for providing educational services (or a condition for evaluating performance).

Mr. Nguyen Trong Hoan – Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training