Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said that according to Apax Leaders, the amount of tuition this unit must refund to parents is 108,1 billion VND, of which 14,3 billion VND has been paid, and about 93,8 billion VND remains. billion VND – Photo: Trong Nhan
He said his family did not hesitate to invest in English for their two children, choosing two full tuition packages of 112 million VND (250 sessions) and 25,6 million VND (96 sessions).
In less than three months, the center began to close, and Mr. P. from taking his children to Apax to study, now had to turn to... demand money. What is worrying is that this trend of parents collecting debt is gradually increasing.
There are all kinds of debt collectors. There was a woman in Binh Thanh who paid more than 80 million VND for a full IELTS course and was guaranteed that her child would get IELTS 7.0, but then wanted to withdraw her money because she saw that the teaching center was crap.
About 5 groups of parents are having financial difficulties and want to withdraw and request the international school to return the pre-paid tuition fees. Most recently, the parent groups involved in the bankruptcy of Apax Leaders and American International School Vietnam (AISVN)...
It can be seen that in any transaction related to tuition at private schools, parents and students are still the "holding tongue" party because of legal loopholes.
Decree 81 of the Government currently stipulates that tuition must be collected on a monthly basis, but many private educational institutions are turning tuition into "educational investment packages", "companion contracts", "contracts". capital contribution"…
With this form, parents pay a few hundred million to a few billion to the school to "invest" or "contribute capital", in return their children will receive free or reduced tuition, sometimes for 12 years.
Many schools say this is a civil transaction, the parties agree voluntarily. So is it okay that this is also a form of capital mobilization? Looking at real estate projects, if you want to mobilize capital, you must comply with the regulatory framework. As for "educational investment" packages - essentially a way for schools to raise capital - there are almost no regulations.
While the scale of educational investment packages is also very huge: calculate that the international school has 1.000 students, if only 1/5, or 200 people participate in the educational investment package, each package is about 5 billion VND, the school has mobilized 1.000 billion VND. At this rate, it is easy to fall into the situation of the school "fighting the enemy bare-handed" and have consequences.
The second gap is managing the risks that arise if a private educational institution accidentally becomes insolvent. If a private high school is considered to operate like a business, they can declare bankruptcy or cease operations.
However, general education is different from other types of business because it requires stability and continuity. However, neither the Education Law nor the current high school charter has regulations on cases where a school goes bankrupt or loses its ability to operate.
That's why when AISVN International School temporarily stopped operating and students were "uneducated", the authorities were somewhat confused and had no legal corridor to intervene.
The most possible thing that the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City is doing is to mobilize other schools to accept transfer students if there is a need.
Finally, the flaw lies in the testing and verification stage. An English center or a private high school in theory are regularly inspected by authorities or independent organizations.
In case an educational institution faces a major crisis, will the testing agencies or accrediting facilities be blameless?
In Singapore, independent accreditation organizations are very effective, continuously assessing the performance of private educational institutions, so parents can always know potential risks early on. .
Socialization of education is a correct policy, reducing pressure on the public school system, diversifying options for students and creating more resources for educational development.
However, recent school default cases show that there is still a need for State management participation through establishing frameworks and institutions to bind investors' responsibilities and protect their interests. of parents.
Above all, the State's legal framework will ensure students' right to study, regardless of public or private school, regardless of the form of learning.
