Overcharging at the beginning of the school year is still hot

The feelings of first-year students

Her child has just entered first grade, but Ms. Le Thi B (Hung Phuc ward - Vinh city) has paid nearly 1 million VND to the parent fund to buy facilities. She does not know how this money was collected and spent, but the class's Parents' Association has used it to buy many things; that is, installing 2 air conditioners for the classroom, making cabinets for the children in the class, buying supplies for boarding such as blankets, pillows and a part to replace the sliding board in the classroom.

Talking about these contributions, Ms. B added: All contributions areparents associationI collect and install for the children in the classroom. I find some fees acceptable such as air conditioning and fans for the children. But I find the fee for buying a sliding board unreasonable because it is clearly the minimum that needs to be in the classroom and the school can use other sources of income or regular expenses, the school's savings to do it.

Illegal fees at the beginning of the year make many parents suffer. Photo: MH

Since the beginning of the school year, the amount of money that Mr. Tran T's family (Vinh city) has spent on the year-end contributions for their child has also reached millions. What he is concerned about is that although his child is studying in a class considered an advanced pilot model in Vinh city, the amount of money spent on purchasing classroom facilities is quite a lot. This includes money to buy new boards, fans, curtains and even computer CPUs. Meanwhile, with the rather high tuition fees, he believes that the school needs to be responsible for fully equipping facilities to ensure minimum teaching conditions.

To facilitate their children, an “unspoken rule” has been in place for many years in many schools, which is that parents will purchase and invest in facilities for classrooms. This puts a heavy burden on parents whose children are in the first grade.

At Hong Son Primary School (Vinh City), a parent whose child had just entered first grade was “shocked” when, in the announcement of the parent meeting, in addition to the class fund of 400,000 VND/student, parents also had to pay an additional 1 million VND for air conditioning, ceiling fans, and desk and chair repairs. In addition, each parent also had to pay 150,000 VND for cleaning/year. That is not to mention the 150,000 VND paid earlier in the year to buy wall fans, school supplies, and blankets. This parent also wondered, this amount may not be large for many families, but if added to many other incomes at the beginning of the year, it would be a “heavy burden” for many working families.

All fees must be disclosed to all parents. In the photo: Parents' meeting of Thanh Chuong 3 High School. Photo: PV

Through discussion, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Lien - Principal of Hong Son Primary School said: This year, our school was approved for 404,000,000 VND in socialized money to purchase teaching equipment and supplement facilities. Through the implementation process, we do not advocate equalization, but have requested some classes with conditions to paysocializemore to support the difficult classes and usually class 1 will be more than the other classes. The case this parent reported was in class 1D and we asked the homeroom teacher and the class parents association to learn from experience and not pay equally. As for the cleaning fee that was collected incorrectly, we asked the class to return it to all parents.

It is difficult to avoid "overcharging" at the beginning of the school year.

Quynh Luu 2 High School has more than 1,500 students at all three levels. Since the previous school year, due to a lack of functional rooms, the school has built a new classroom block to serve as a practice room with a total cost of about 2 billion VND. According to the school's leaders, due to current conditions, the school has not been allocated a budget to supplement the source for building facilities, so the entire amount of money to build functional classrooms is expected to be mobilized from parents, with a total amount of about 600 million VND per year.

Socialization is still carried out equally by some schools. Photo: MH

According to regulations, before implementing the collection of socialized fees at schools, schools must make a plan and be approved by the Department of Education and Training. However, in mid-September, at the school-wide parent meeting, Quynh Luu 2 High School disseminated the collection of fees at the beginning of the year to all parents. Immediately after that, at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the Parents' Association organized by the school, it was also agreed to "encourage" each grade 10 student about 480,000 VND, grade 11 about 430,000 VND and grade 12 about 380,000 VND. Policy beneficiaries will be exempted.

Along with the socialized collection, Quynh Luu 2 High School also "encouraged" parents of 10th and 11th graders to buy personal insurance for students at a fee of 200,000 VND/school year. However, if students buy for 3 years, it will be reduced to 480,000 VND. These collections are all shown in writing, although previously, according to the regulations of the Department of Education and Training, socialized collection and sponsorship cannot be "leveled" and must be carried out in accordance with regulations. In addition, mobilizing parents to buy personal insurance is contrary to the guiding documents, even if it is only "voluntary" or encouraged.

Regarding the school's revenue and expenditure at the beginning of the year, Mr. Vu Ngoc Tuan - Principal of Quynh Luu 2 High School said: "This is the school's plan and has only been planned but has not been collected because it is waiting for the Department's approval". However, in reality, many parents whose children are studying at the school also said that usually after the parent meeting at the beginning of the school year, many parents have paid for their children. Regarding personal insurance, many parents are also concerned because most schools, if they have it, only collect 100,000 VND/year. But at Quynh Luu 2 High School, the collection rate is double and whether the school's proposal in the parent meeting is a "voluntary" or "encouraging" way but in the spirit of forcing or encouraging parents to implement it.

The functional building block with a total construction cost of nearly 2 billion VND was mobilized by Quynh Luu 2 High School from social sources in 3 years. Photo: MH

Mr. Tran Xuan Nhuong - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Quynh Luu district said: Although there have been many guiding documents, every year there are still some schools collecting fees that are against the regulations. Therefore, this year we have thoroughly informed each principal and teacher. In particular, the district strictly prohibits schools from arbitrarily collecting socialized fees without the consent of the department and related units.

In Yen Thanh district, the district’s Department of Education and Training has also recently required a kindergarten principal to write a self-criticism and strictly handle the situation of illegal collection of fees, and return money to parents if they have collected money after many parents reported the situation of “overcharging”. This includes money spent on cleaning the school, mobilizing parents to contribute money to buy teaching aids and money to buy decorative plants.

Mr. Tran Xuan Tinh - Head of the Department of Education and Training of Yen Thanh district also said: We thoroughly inform each school about the issue of revenue and expenditure at the beginning of the year and strictly handle cases of intentional violations that cause bad public opinion in society.

Speaking more about the issue of revenue and expenditure at the beginning of the school year, Mr. Thai Van Thanh - Director of the Department of Education and Training said: “We require all Departments of Education and Training to set up a hotline and publicly announce the hotline on the electronic information portal for people to report. In particular, strictly handle the heads of educational institutions that collect illegal fees, and impose administrative sanctions in the field of education. If any educational institution collects fees that are not in accordance with regulations, they must return them and the head of the unit will be responsible before the law and the management agencies. The Department will also establish an inspection team to check the revenue and expenditure work at schools.”

To limit the situation of overcharging at the beginning of the school year, from the end of August until now, the Nghe An Department of Education and Training has issued 3 detailed documents, guiding the collection of fees at the beginning of the school year and correcting the situation of overcharging. Most recently, the Department of Education and Training requested its affiliated educational institutions, the Department of Education and Training of districts, towns, and Vinh city to direct educational institutions under its authority to publicly implement conditions to ensure educational quality and financial collection and expenditure.

In addition, it is necessary to commit not to collect illegal fees, not to arbitrarily set up illegal fees and funds in schools, to reduce non-urgent operating costs, and to focus on improving the quality of education. The Department also strictly prohibits educational institutions from taking advantage of the Parents' Representative Board in the form of "voluntary" collection from parents to purchase machinery, equipment, and gifts for schools and teachers.

My Ha