The parent fund is growing bigger and bigger: Unusual and indignant!
Every time a new school year begins, the worry of the burden of contributions weighs heavily on parents’ shoulders. In reality, tuition fees are not worth worrying about, but additional fees are truly scary. Additional fees are causing many parents to struggle to bear the burden in the name of “ educational sponsors”.
In Ho Chi Minh City, class 1/2 of Hong Ha Primary School had to refund nearly 250 million VND to parents due to overcharging. Accordingly, each parent of this class had to pay 10 million VND in fund/person. And in less than 1 month, class 1/2 of Hong Ha Primary School also spent more than 260 million VND in fund. Of which, there were large expenses for repairing classrooms. In Hanoi , although not used for investment in purchasing facilities, the parent fund of class 12 Literature, Chu Van An High School (Tay Ho District) also swelled abnormally. Accordingly, each parent of this class paid 4.5 million VND/semester in parent fund.
The first-year class fees surprised many people.
The question is, why do many classes collect such a large amount of money from parents? How will the collected money be handled? Accordingly, each parent of class 1/2, Hong Ha Primary School, contributes 10 million VND to the class fund to be used for repairing classroom items such as making floors, installing air conditioners, painting walls, fans, sliding boards, cabinets. While the current state of the classroom, the school has fully equipped it with desks, chairs, lights, fans, etc., parents still want to renovate the classroom to be spacious and fully equipped so that their children can study throughout the 5 years of school.
In fact, in addition to the revenue and expenditure to invest in additional classroom facilities, the expenditure for teachers also causes the class fund to swell. The revenue and expenditure plan of class 9/10 Le Quy Don Secondary School (District 3, Ho Chi Minh City) in the year 2022 - 2023 is a clear example. Accordingly, the class's parent committee listed 32 items that need spending money. Of which, the November 20 gift money for teachers alone is 21 million VND. Specifically: giving 3 million VND to the homeroom teacher; 1 million VND to the nanny; 16 million VND to 16 subject teachers (1 million VND each); 2 million VND to the principal; 2 million VND to 2 vice principals (1 million VND each). The estimated expenditure for Tet gifts for teachers is also up to 27 million VND, including: 3 million for the homeroom teacher; 1 million for the nanny; 16 million VND for 16 subject teachers (1 million VND each); 7 million VND for 14 school staff (4 cleaners, 3 security guards, 4 supervisors, 1 clerk, 1 medical staff , 1 data entry staff) 500,000 VND each.
Hong Ha Primary School. Photo: Document
When will overcharging end?
Explaining the rise of overcharging, Mr. Huynh Thanh Phu - Principal of Bui Thi Xuan High School shared with the press that there are many reasons leading to overcharging in schools today. First of all, in the context of the 4.0 revolution and digital transformation, schools need adequate facilities. However, currently, schools from cities to rural areas, from places with conditions to places without conditions, are lacking investment in infrastructure for digital transformation.
In addition, due to the harsh weather, it is necessary to equip classrooms with air conditioners and cooling devices. This is a need to meet the needs of students, and adults must be responsible. However, these things are not included in the state budget procurement category. In addition, to develop a global citizen, especially English subjects, it is necessary to have computer rooms, software, or computer rooms to teach international computer science... However, the state budget has not yet met these needs, forcing schools to socialize. Therefore, at the beginning of the school year, in the context of degraded schools, poor teaching conditions, and unsynchronized infrastructure, schools are forced to mobilize contributions from parents.
From another perspective, speaking with reporters from the Journalist & Public Opinion Newspaper, Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam (Chairman of the Hanoi Educational Psychology Association) said that overcharging occurs due to lack of strict disciplinary action and he also said that schools, teachers, and Parent Associations should be strictly prohibited from mobilizing socialized contributions, then the collection will stop.
Illustration photo: qtv.vn
| According to experts, overcharging happens almost every school year, and is increasingly distorted with many unreasonable revenue and expenditure items. The reason is that the regulations on revenue and expenditure are not clearly defined, so they are easily exploited to overcharge and overspend, which can easily lead to the socialization of education and overcharging of class funds being "equated". Therefore, it is necessary to review documents regulating the collection and expenditure of class funds in schools; issue documents specifying the revenue items, as well as the voluntary expenditure items, and those collected on behalf of the school. The collection, expenditure and operating costs of the Parents' Representative Board must ensure the principles of publicity, democracy and transparency. Relevant units need to strengthen regular inspection and supervision. |
Accordingly, Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam said that the Ministry of Education and Training and localities have opinions and directives on the issue of overcharging, but there is still a situation where overcharging occurs every year. " For overcharging, the school principal must take responsibility. Currently, we have not clarified this issue. The handling of overcharging has only stopped at criticism and reminders. It is necessary to remove the principal from his position when overcharging occurs " - Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam emphasized.
In addition, Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam also said that any teachers who do it on their own must be strictly punished. The parents' representative committee - those responsible - must also have a form of punishment to avoid following suit. " The current handling, collecting the wrong fees and returning them to the parents is easy to become indifferent to the law. Overcharging will happen again " - Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam emphasized. Finally, this expert said that to end this problem, it is necessary to prohibit the mobilization of money through the parents' association, schools and teachers.
“ The responsibility of mobilizing socialized education must be assigned to the locality. The local government must directly implement the plan to invest in school facilities. For any items that need to be mobilized from socialization, the locality must call for contributions from society. As for the school, teachers, and the Parents' Association, they must not participate in mobilizing contributions. Only then will illegal collection in schools end, ” said Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam.
Through the discussion, it can be seen that mobilizing social contributions for education is the source of painful overcharging. Therefore, to prevent overcharging, it is necessary to prohibit schools, teachers, and parent associations from mobilizing social contributions, and this task should be assigned to local authorities.
Trinh Phuc
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