Socializing education: Teachers are having to 'lower themselves' to 'ask' parents for money

(Baonghean.vn)- The biggest loss in the socialization of education is that teachers have to accept losing part of their image and honor to 'beg' for money from parents. This will make the education of students no longer complete.

» Three shortcomings of socialized education: Transparency, efficiency, fairness

After the article"Three shortcomings of socialized education: Transparency, efficiency, fairness"was published, Nghe An Newspaper received a letter from a principal of a school in a difficult area, expressing his thoughts, feelings and expectations regarding the collection of social fees in a voluntary form.

Here is the original text of the letter:

"Since the 2008 school year, the Ministry of Education and Training has had a policy of eliminating the regulation of school construction contributions in the form of collection according to regulations and moving to voluntary mobilization. Thus, the "benefit" is that we have increased resources to build and repair facilities for schools to become more spacious, thereby improving the quality of education.

Classroom of students at Long Son Kindergarten (Anh Son) (Photo: My Ha).

The second benefit is to help education managers, teachers, and schools gain more skills in communicating with the people (knowing how to do mass mobilization work).

However, through the reality of educational managers at the grassroots level, we see that in schools in cities and towns with developed economic conditions, mobilization is easier; but in rural areas, areas with economic difficulties, and special areas, mobilizing socialization in the form of voluntariness is really difficult.

This, in my opinion, is not satisfactory. Because the main task of teachers is to cultivate people. To do that and complete the task is already very difficult. But at the beginning of the school year, the movement to socialize education has greatly affected the teaching and learning tasks of teachers. In this regard, the "loss" is greater.

Teachers at Chau Tien Kindergarten (Quy Hop) go to get water from local people's houses for students to use (Photo: My Ha).

The first loss,That is the position of the teacher. For a long time, the image of the teacher has been associated with nobility, regardless of fame, position, or money. But just because of implementing this voluntary socialization movement, the teacher is "begging" for money from parents. And if you ask, you cannot be stubborn, otherwise the parents will not support, and thus the teacher will feel that he has not completed the assigned work.

Because of this unreasonable policy, the status of teachers in the eyes of parents is also reduced and it certainly has a negative impact on the teachers' thoughts and feelings in educating students.

Besides, some parents do not share, sympathize, even have unintentional words, hurt the self-esteem of teachers. If there is a survey in all schools, I am sure that the majority will agree to remove the voluntary form of socialization and replace it with the prescribed form as before.

A lesson of students at Quynh Luu High School - a particularly difficult area (Photo: My Ha).

Monday,In schools, in general, it all comes down to two words: good teaching - good learning. Therefore, investing time and effort to think about how to make teaching and learning better and better, how to take better care of students will take up a lot of space. But now at the beginning of the new school year, schools are actually worried and spending a lot of time on mobilizing socialization. Everyone understands that if we do not mobilize socialization, do not care, do not do it thoroughly, there will be no funds to take care of school facilities.

To be honest, teachers are only trained in the professional skills to become teachers, but not everyone is good at communicating with parents; many teachers cry when they see parents being stressed. When all the pressure is released through tears, where is the mind left to take care of the most important thing: teaching and educating students.

Particularly in some difficult and sensitive areas like ours, the issue of voluntary socialization really causes difficulties for the school and for the teachers. Some teachers are afraid of being homeroom teachers because for them, the parent-teacher meeting at the beginning of the year is a huge pressure. There are times when they just have to accept it.

Students of Trung Do Secondary School - Vinh City (Photo: My Ha).

From this we propose:

1. Let schools and teachers focus on taking care of education and fulfilling their duties as teachers. Taking care of school facilities is the responsibility of the whole society, and the primary responsibility belongs to local authorities, and cannot be delegated to schools and teachers as is currently the case.

2. The current campaign to support public facilities and infrastructure only gains material things (a little more), but the loss is huge. The biggest loss is that teachers have to accept losing part of their image, part of their honor to "beg" for money from parents. This will make the education of students no longer complete. Not to mention the inevitable mistakes. If so, when standing in front of students, how can teachers still speak and teach them?

In our opinion, this voluntary socialization form should be replaced by a regulated socialization form such as tuition fees, for example, or integrated into tuition fees (in tuition fees, there is a provision for building material facilities)... All levels can regulate the contribution level to suit the economic characteristics of the region, with exemptions and reductions for policy beneficiaries, poor households...

3. Suggest that all levels consult with managers and teachers about this form to decide on changing from voluntary social work to social work according to regulations.

4. If we maintain the current form of social mobilization, we suggest that all levels should assign it to local authorities: kindergartens, primary schools, and junior high schools at the commune level; high schools at the district or provincial level. It should not be assigned to schools, but schools should only coordinate.

5. Increase tuition fees so that schools have funding for educational activities in conditions where the state budget is still limited.

(Title by Nghe An Newspaper)