Principal talks about controversial social mobilization funds

Public opinion in Ha Tinh is buzzing about a local school mobilizing businesses, individuals, and parents to sponsor more than 800 million VND to buy tables, chairs, and equipment; renovate and decorate facilities; and plant 10 rosewood trees.

Nguyen Du Secondary School (Thanh Sen Ward, Ha Tinh ) - Photo: LE MINH

For the past two days, public opinion in Ha Tinh has been buzzing about a local school mobilizing businesses, individuals, and parents to sponsor and support more than 800 million VND to purchase tables, chairs, and equipment; renovate and decorate facilities; including planting 10 rosewood trees worth 130 million VND.

According to research, entering the new school year, Nguyen Du Secondary School (Thanh Sen Ward, Ha Tinh) issued a plan to mobilize organizations, units, businesses, and individuals (parents and teachers) to support investment in facilities to serve teaching and learning for the school in the 2025-2026 school year.

The fundraising budget includes 6 items: Student desks and chairs; TVs, smart slide boards for classrooms; 15 new classrooms; training equipment for multi-purpose buildings; planting shade trees and repairing and renovating flower beds... with a total cost of more than 800 million VND.

Notably, the above budget includes planting 10 rosewood trees in the school yard to shade the yard, each costing 13 million VND, and renovating and repairing flower beds with a budget of 50 million VND, causing a stir in public opinion.

Some opinions say that it is not necessary to plant rosewood trees in the school yard because of their high value, instead plant other trees such as banyan and royal poinciana, which have low value and are easy to grow. Moreover, the locality has just suffered two major storms, some items are not necessary, so the investment should be spread out over many years to avoid pressure on parents.

Budget estimates for the contents of Nguyen Du Secondary School calling for sponsorship - Photo: Social Network

Speaking to Tuoi Tre Online , Mr. Le Ngoc Anh - Principal of Nguyen Du Secondary School - confirmed that the budget estimate circulating on social networks belongs to the school. This estimate is part of the plan to mobilize organizations, units, businesses, and individuals (parents and teachers) to support investment in facilities for teaching and learning at the school for the 2025-2026 school year.

Teacher Anh explained that this year Nguyen Du Secondary School has increased by 158 students compared to last year, bringing the total number of students to 1,409 and 32 classrooms. Many desks and chairs for 9th grade students were damaged and could not be repaired, so the school mobilized sponsorship to buy 99 new desks and chairs.

The 3-storey building with 15 classrooms was newly built and put into use this year, but there is no TV or slide board yet, so the school mobilized sponsorship to buy 9 TVs and decorate 15 rooms to serve teaching.

The school campus has liquidated a 2-storey building with 10 classrooms, leaving a large empty space. Now it needs to plant additional trees to provide shade for students to play and study. Therefore, when planning to plant trees, a business sponsored 10 rosewood trees with a value of 13 million VND each.

"These 10 rosewood trees were sponsored by businesses for the school. However, the school still included them in the fundraising plan to announce to parents and teachers throughout the school," said Mr. Anh.

Answering a reporter's question about why many items in the budget do not use the budget that the school called for funding, Mr. Anh said that in recent years the school has received large investments from the state, so it will be difficult to continue to request additional budget investment for the above items.

According to Mr. Anh, the school calls for sponsorship not in the form of equalization, but businesses, organizations, individuals, parents, depending on their generosity, can support with money or material such as tables, chairs, materials to carry out construction items. The school will receive and use the sponsored items in accordance with regulations and report to the school council and annual parent meetings.

LE MINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/hieu-truong-noi-ve-cac-khoan-van-dong-xa-hoi-hoa-gay-xon-xao-20251024111207424.htm