The Ministry of Education and Training has ordered all schools and education centers to stop charging parents additional fees under a newly issued document from Deputy Minister Nguyen Vinh Hien. According to the document, they are also required to publicize tuition fees. The move comes in an attempt to prevent schools and education centers from overcharging parents ahead of the upcoming school year. Under the document, the schools will have to strictly adhere to Decree 49 issued last year by the Government. The decree outlines mechanisms to collect and use tuition fees for schools under the national education system. The ministry also said that schools should discuss the costs of uniforms and lunch fees with parents in order to come to amicable agreements. Fees that are collected from parents at the start of each school year to encourage students to study harder must also be publicized. The ministry assigned People's Committee in provinces and cities to tighten inspections of financial operations in schools and deal appropriately with any violations that were found. Nguyen Ngoc Lan, mother of a 16-year-old girl in Hai Ba Trung District, said, "If schools implement the document, it will help to reduce the burden of school fees on parents." I vote for funds to encourage students to study harder, instead of funds for unnecessary luxuries such as air conditioning, she said.
Bui Thi Kim Hoa, principal of a Hanoi-based primary school, said parents would benefit from the new document, especially poor parents.
"However, to make the document work effectively, specific sanctions with higher deterrents are imperative," she said.
Despite the new document, some schools are still making things difficult for parents by forcing them to buy a new uniform for each school year. Parents have complained vociferously because in many cases, the previous year's uniform is perfectly adequate. Nguyen Thi Mai of northern Thai Binh Province said she had to sell 20 kilos of rice equal to VND500,000 ($24) to buy two new uniforms for her daughter.
"It is not easy for rural parents like us to pay for new uniforms," Mai said.
"I had no choice but to buy a new one for my daughter because her teacher would not allow her to the old one at school," she said.
Hoang Thi Luyen, mother of a 10-year-old-girl in the northern province of Hai Duong, said that schools charged up to VND100,000 ($4.5) more than the markets, and insisted that the uniform be identical to the school issue if it was purchased elsewhere. Tran Thanh Tam, headmaster of Xuan Hoa Secondary School in the southern province of Soc Trang, said although uniforms were known as the brand of each school, they need not be changed every year, to help reduce the burden of school fees on parents. (Vietnam News Aug 27)
