In late October 2023, teacher Dang Van Bang - Principal of Muong Qua High School (Con Cuong), was still "scratching his head" to find funding for the students' practice field and playground. "A classmate of mine in Vinh City connected with a sponsor for the school to provide 50 tons of cement. But that was still not enough, because there was still sand, rocks and labor costs...", teacher Bang said.
For many years now, since becoming the Principal, asking for educational sponsorship for students in the school has become very familiar to teacher Bang. He has also made full use of almost all personal relationships. However, the school's facilities are still very lacking, especially to serve the students' learning.
Muong Qua High School has nearly 500 students, coming from Luc Da and Mon Son communes. Depending on the year, but almost every year, over 94% of the students are children of ethnic minorities, whose lives are still difficult. Having been attached to the school since graduating from university in the lowlands, Mr. Bang said: The school was established in 2000. The initial facilities were only 4 newly built grade 4 classrooms with investment capital from the district, located in the middle of a field. People from the 2 communes contributed materials and labor to build 2 rows of thatched houses on low land that used to be fields of the people of Khe Lo village.
After more than 20 years, the school's facilities have improved somewhat, but are still fundamentally lacking. Despite the difficulties, for the past 7 years, the school has adopted a policy of not collecting socialized fees. "Most of the students are children of ethnic minorities, and their lives are still difficult, so we can't bear to collect them. Even if we tried to mobilize them, we probably wouldn't get much," said Mr. Bang. In order for students to have the most complete learning environment possible, Principal Dang Van Bang had to take advantage of personal relationships to ask for outside educational funding.
For large investments, teacher Bang had to ask for funds from the district budget. As for the equipment and supplies used in the school, they were mainly asked for from individuals. Taking us on a tour of the classrooms, teacher Bang said that the 12 televisions in the 12 classrooms were all asked for from a high school classmate. Recently, 4 of them were broken, so he had to continue asking for them from others one by one. The remaining 20 computers were just asked for from a university in Hanoi.
“I always take advantage of opportunities to ask for donations for students. For example, when I went to supervise exams in Nam Dan district, I met teachers at the university and expressed my wish and was sponsored,” said teacher Bang. Although the summer weather in the mountainous district is very harsh, the principal’s office was only recently installed with air conditioning a few months ago. It was also a gift sponsored by a friend of principal Bang who is working in Vinh City.
The principal of Muong Qua High School also said that although he had used all his connections to ask for sponsorship for the school, there were still many shortages. Not only playgrounds and exercise grounds for students, nearly 500 students still yearned for multifunctional classrooms and traditional education rooms. In addition, the headmaster's house was seriously degraded, and every time it rained, it leaked, but the school did not dare to ask for help from parents.
Many principals in highland schools in Nghe An have used their personal connections to ask for funding like this. In the extremely disadvantaged border commune of Tam Hop (Tuong Duong), at the beginning of each school year, Mr. Nguyen Dinh Man - Principal of Tam Hop Primary School spends most of his time looking for opportunities to meet with volunteer groups to ask for funding for equipment to support students' learning.
This school has only over 300 students, but due to the remote location, there are up to 4 school locations. Therefore, the need for investment in construction and equipment procurement is very large. Meanwhile, local resources are limited. Talking about the story of socialized collection, teacher Man said that at the beginning of each school year, the school makes a list and estimates the items that need to be built and repaired and then sends them to the management board of the villages. Most of them are small items, the total investment each year is only about 30 million VND for all 4 school locations. After that, the management board of the villages mobilizes on their own. Some villages mobilize the whole population to support, some villages only mobilize households with children studying at the school. After mobilizing the money, the management board of the villages themselves build, repair and then hand it over to the school.
“Basically, the Principal still has to ask for sponsorship from outside, especially for equipment for learning such as televisions, computers, etc. After making full use of my personal relationships, I asked the commune leaders and border guards stationed in the area to help connect,” teacher Man added.
In Con Cuong district, Mr. Luong Dinh Viet - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee said that there are more than 40 schools in the area, but since 2020, no school has collected social fees. "We are not banning but just tightening, schools that want to collect fees must have the district's approval. But in the past 3 years, no school has been approved. People's lives here are still difficult, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, so we have to reduce the burden on parents. In addition, we also want to avoid schools with the intention of overcharging and committing violations. The view of the district leaders is that schools only need to worry about teaching and learning, focusing on the quality of education, while facilities are the responsibility of the district and the State," said Mr. Viet.
Before each school year, Con Cuong district issues a document, in which it sets out the principles; the content and items calling for sponsorship must be extremely practical, contributing to solving the school's weaknesses. Do not solicit sponsorship for projects that have been invested by the State or completed projects. Encourage the People's Committees of communes, towns, and educational institutions to mobilize voluntary contributions of working days, materials, equipment, and construction of projects according to the "turnkey" model; it is possible to develop a plan to solicit sponsorship for a project over many years to reduce the burden on the sponsor at a time. When soliciting sponsorship, do not set a minimum level, do not impose, do not assign quotas to classes; do not solicit poor households or policy households. It is strictly forbidden to take advantage of the name of the parents' association to collect illegal fees at schools.
In particular, it is only allowed to call for sponsorship when the Con Cuong District People's Committee approves the policy. "At first, when the district issued the regulation, there was public opinion, but later the schools also realized that it was right. We do not allow schools to collect, but in return, the district must be responsible for focusing resources to invest in facilities for the schools. In addition to the budget, the district leaders also regularly call for and mobilize large enterprises and successful individuals to sponsor the school. Many schools have recently received sponsorship from 5 to 7 billion VND," Mr. Viet added.
In Ky Son district, Mr. Pham Viet Phuc - acting Head of the district's Department of Education and Training said that there are more than 70 schools in the district, but only 3 schools located in Muong Xen town collect socialized fees, but they are not significant. "In Ky Son district, schools are not prohibited from collecting, but because people's lives are still too difficult, schools that want to mobilize sponsorship from parents cannot do so," said Mr. Phuc.