Should homeroom teachers collect money from students at the beginning of the year?

One of the proposals is that the Ministry of Education and Training should clearly define who collects the money at the beginning of the school year. This is something that many of my colleagues and I have been wondering about for many years.

Teachers are tired of coming to class to "collect debts"

For a long time, at the school I worked in Khanh Hoa province, the homeroom teacher was the one who had to directly collect and write receipts for each item. The collected items included: tuition, health insurance, personal insurance, PTA fees, communication cards, plastic chairs, drinking water, and exam paper fees. Then, the teacher submitted them to the accountant and treasurer.

Most homeroom teachers complain that they are very tired because they have to go to class every day to "collect debts". Many times, teachers feel sorry for themselves when they hear students say that Ms. T. and Mr. L. "meet to collect money " . However, students do not know that this is the task assigned to teachers by the school. Teachers must complete on time if they do not want to be reminded or criticized.

A parent meeting at the beginning of the school year

ILLUSTRATION: DAO NGOC THACH

The school gave the reason that there was only one accountant and one treasurer, so it was impossible to collect all the money from a large number of students. Therefore, the board of directors had to assign the homeroom teacher to collect the money.

If this is the homeroom teacher's duty according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training, the teacher must do it. If not, the teachers hope that the leaders of the education sector will consider and clearly determine who is responsible for collecting money at the beginning of the school year, and not force the homeroom teacher to do this. At the beginning of the school year, teachers need to focus on stabilizing the discipline and focusing on teaching rather than being busy collecting money.

Teachers are afraid of announcing the collection of fees at the beginning of the school year.

I was assigned by the school to be the homeroom teacher of grade 9. At the beginning of the school year, in addition to the assigned professional tasks such as organizing the class, disseminating the timetable, implementing the rules, working..., an indispensable task for the homeroom teacher is to announce the fees collected at the beginning of the year.

Collecting fees at the beginning of the school year for students in the rural areas where I teach is really difficult. Most of the parents are farmers and only have enough to eat every day, and all of them wait until the rice harvest season to have a little money to cover many things. Therefore, the homeroom teachers are afraid to announce the collection of fees at the beginning of the school year.

The school also has to remind parents because it is a target that must be completed by the superiors. This forces the homeroom teacher to "shout" every day to collect all the required fees. With the spirit of "collecting correctly and collecting enough" like that, teachers indirectly cause more worries for parents.

One time, I just woke up and turned on my phone and saw a message: "I am T.'s parent. Please don't read my child's name in front of the class this morning because he hasn't paid yet. I'm very embarrassed because I can't pay yet, my husband is sick. I hope you understand, thank you! "

After reading the message, I felt guilty even though I had not named T. in front of the class and blamed myself for being careless and not understanding the students’ circumstances so that I could help them in some way. If I had not received this message, as usual, I would have read out the names of the students who had not paid their fees in front of the class.

Homeroom teachers take on many extracurricular tasks, especially at the beginning of the school year.

ILLUSTRATION: DAO NGOC THACH

Since then, I never read the names of students who have not paid their fees in front of the class, regardless of the principal's criticism that my homeroom class has not completed collecting the fees.

One day the principal called me to his office and I discussed with him the case of T. Specifically, T.'s family was in financial difficulty, his father was seriously ill, his mother was unemployed so there was no money to pay. T. was an excellent student for three consecutive years in grades 6, 7, and 8, so I asked the school to exempt him. After that, the principal agreed to put him on the list of students who had lost income.

This is what I can help T with. And it is also a lesson for me and my colleagues: "Never work for targets and competition. Reminding students about money should be very tactful, and the names of students who have not paid should not be read out in front of the class or under the flag."

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