Many schools abuse voluntary contributions

"Of course, these payments are nominally voluntary, but in reality they are not. Sometimes the application is written by the school and given to the parents to sign," said Dao Trong Thi, Head of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children.

Reporting on the settlement of voters' petitions during the 12th National Assembly term, on the morning of September 28, Mr. Nguyen Duc Hien, Head of the Petition Committee, said that voters in many localities complained about having to pay many fees in addition to tuition and admission fees that are not in accordance with the law.

Through reports from 39 provinces as well as working directly with 12 localities, the Petition Committee affirmed that currently, in addition to tuition and admission fees, in general schools, especially in cities, towns, and townships, parents have to pay many amounts of money to serve tasks such as strengthening school facilities, security work, vehicle parking, school cleaning, buying school supplies, toys, etc.

The lack of transparency in the collection and spending of expenses other than tuition and fees has made parents angry. Illustration photo: Hoang Ha.

As for the contribution to the operating costs of the Parents' Association, up to now, no locality has specified a specific collection rate. In fact, in many localities, the operating fee of this association is many times higher than the tuition fee.

"Many educational institutions have abused the regulations on voluntary contributions to mobilize parents to contribute funds to build and repair schools, purchase air conditioners, fans, anti-myopia lamps, and pay for visiting teachers... In general, this collection and spending is not public and transparent, causing much frustration for parents," said Mr. Hien.

According to Mr. Dao Trong Thi, Chairman of the Committee for Culture, Education, Youth and Children, the law stipulates that nothing other than tuition and fees are collected, but the Ministry of Education and Training has guidelines for collecting equipment purchases... "Of course, these fees are nominally voluntary, but in reality they are not voluntary. Sometimes the application is written by the school and then given to the parents to sign. There needs to be a monitoring mechanism so that volunteering must be truly voluntary," said Mr. Thi.

According to the assessment of the Petition Committee, the situation of overcharging has been going on for a long time but has not been effectively prevented. There are many reasons, first of all, the issuance of documents guiding the implementation of the Education Law has not fully met the requirements of management activities. The decentralization of the issuance of state management documents between the Ministry of Education and Training and the Provincial People's Committees on the management of revenue and expenditure of the Parents' Representative Board is not really clear and specific.

In addition, although the tuition fees collected are not much, 40% must still be reserved to ensure the implementation of the general minimum wage, while the State budget for regular expenditures of educational institutions is still limited. Therefore, in order to have funds for school activities, some localities have had to stipulate other revenues in addition to tuition and fees...

(According to VnExpress)