Nghe An: Preschool children 'shoulder' more than 80 expenses at the beginning of the school year

(Baonghean.vn) - Socialized collection of equal fees, arbitrarily collecting money to buy learning materials contrary to regulations and forcing students to "bear" many voluntary purchases is the reality of the revenue and expenditure of Hung Thang Commune Kindergarten (Hung Nguyen) in the 2016-2017 school year.

Each child has to pay more than 3.3 million VND at the beginning of the school year.

Before the new school year 2016 - 2017, the board of directors and the parents' association of Hung Thang kindergarten (Hung Nguyen) issued a list of toys and learning materials for children and a list of cleaning supplies in classrooms and for parents to take care of children in boarding schools; at the same time, parents were required to buy them themselves (or pay for the school to buy) with a total collection for both categories of about 500 - 550,000 VND/child (depending on age).

Hung Thang Kindergarten

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy (village 18) has 2 children studying at the school and said: "My child is in grade 5, I don't know why in the list of toys and learning materials for children, there are 59 items that need to be purchased, including notebooks, colored paper and pens, alphabet and number cards, various types of bingo, doctor's tools, children's calendars, and poetry and story tapes. In addition, each child must also buy their own good child coupons...".

In addition, during the school year, the school also has 19 revenue and expenditure items for cleaning and taking care of children in boarding schools such as buying toilet paper, soap, toilet cleaner, and gloves for teachers. As for brooms, each year the children have to pay to buy up to 5 types including "toilet brooms, 360-degree mops, curtain brooms, brooms for the ceiling...".

Parents present illegal fees

In addition to the above fees, this school year, the school has also introduced 8 other fees. Among these, in addition to familiar fees such as tuition, parent association fund, boarding fees, health insurance, etc., each parent must also pay socialized fees at an average rate of 700,000/student/year or more.

In addition, each student must also pay 344,000 VND/student/year to hire a cook for the boarding school and pay for drinking water. Total fees at the beginning of the school year, on average, each student must pay 3,343,000 VND/year (not including monthly food expenses).

59 lists of learning materials that 5-year-old students must buy

Parent Nguyen Thi Hoa (village 18) wondered: "The place where we live is a purely agricultural commune, people mainly work in agriculture, the standard of living is low, but the school offers an average socialized level of up to 700,000 VND/student, 200 - 300,000 VND higher than neighboring communes. During the implementation process, the school showed imposition and compulsion. When we expressed our objections, the school principal showed anger and used harsh words...".

Illegal fees are listed by parents.

Because of the above disagreements, on October 15, when the school held a parent meeting, many parents stood up to protest and demand an explanation from the school. Because of their frustration, some parents later sent a petition to the commune authorities asking for an inspection and review.

Parents also reported that the school had many unclear revenue sources and purchased equipment at prices higher than the market price. For example, the school reported the gas rice cooker was 23 million VND but the market price was only 15 million VND, the child seat was 80,000 VND but the school quoted the price as 165,000 VND...

Arbitrarily collect without approval from superiors

Working with the board of directors of Hung Thang Kindergarten (Hung Nguyen), teacher Le Thi Thu Ha - Principal of the school explained: "Before the school year, the school conducted a survey and made a list of items that needed to be repaired during the school year. Then, it was approved by the Parents' Association, the Commune People's Committee and the Department of Education and Training. In this school year alone, the estimated expenses are 174 million VND. Based on the number of 249 students, the school plans to collect 700,000 VND or more from each student."

The principal also said: "This is the school's plan, but in fact we will collect it voluntarily. However, it is possible that the teachers did not understand the spirit and did not explain clearly, but asked parents to register the amount of money on the voluntary form, causing parents to be upset."

Principal of Hung Thang Kindergarten explains about the revenues

Explaining the collection of tuition fees and boarding fees, the school principal said: This was due to the vice principal and the parents' association misunderstanding the instructions. In fact, the school was buying on behalf of parents, not forcing them. In addition, the time for collecting money was from August 18 to September 3, when the school had not yet received the department's instructions. Currently, the department has issued a document prohibiting parents from buying on behalf of parents, so the school will return it.

Directive document of Hung Thang Commune Party Committee

It is known that according to the regulations of the Hung Nguyen Department of Education, the revenues (especially the socialized revenues) must be approved by the Parents' Association, the commune government and must be approved by the department. However, with Hung Thang Kindergarten, although the revenues have been made public, some amounts have been collected from parents and a parent meeting has been held to inform, but until the morning of October 26, the school still has not received an approval document from the Hung Nguyen Department of Education allowing the revenues and expenditures in the 2016-2017 school year.

Students of Hung Thang Kindergarten.

Receiving feedback from parents, yesterday morning (October 26), the People's Committee of Hung Thang commune invited the Board of Directors of Hung Thang Kindergarten to work and explain the issues that parents were concerned about. Mr. Phan Quang Mao - Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune said: "In the process of collecting and spending money of Hung Thang Kindergarten, there were many violations and we have sent a document requesting the school's leadership to temporarily stop and not collect voluntary contributions agreed between parents and the school when there is no agreement and high consensus of parents.

In addition, we will request the school to review and resolutely return the illegal fees (for learning materials and boarding child care services). Regarding the principal, the Commune Party Committee will soon have a meeting to review"./.

Song Hoang