Many parents in Dong Hoi City are protesting against the fee charged for tuition payments made through the software.

"Why should we pay tuition fees and then have to pay a fee in return?"

As Thanh Nien Newspaper has reported, in implementing digital technology and cashless payments in schools, from the 2021-2022 school year to the present, the Department of Education and Training of Dong Hoi City has piloted the use of software from MISA Joint Stock Company for parents to pay tuition fees for their children at 32 schools in the area.

By the 2023-2024 school year, in addition to the schools already using MISA Joint Stock Company's software, the Department of Education and Training of Dong Hoi City also allowed 20 other schools to apply cashless payment with the revenue management software of YOYOSHOOL Joint Stock Company.

MISA Joint Stock Company's SISAP software has been used free of charge in Dong Hoi City during the past school years.

The problem began to arise when software providers started charging fees. Mr. Ho Thanh Hai, Head of the Education and Training Department of Dong Hoi City, said that in previous school years, all payment transactions were free of charge through MISA Joint Stock Company's software.

However, MISA unexpectedly announced that the free service would only be available until December 31, 2023, after which a fee of 4,400 VND would be charged for each transaction, regardless of the amount.

Therefore, the Department of Education and Training of Dong Hoi City will stop using MISA's software and switch to using YOYOSHOOL JSC's software.

However, the software developed by YOYOSHOOL JSC is not free either, charging 1,100 VND per transaction.

After Thanh Nien Newspaper reported on this policy, many parents in Dong Hoi City expressed their disagreement.

Many parents believe that the goal of digital transformation is to make things easier and more convenient; the same applies to digital transformation in education , but this doesn't mean shifting the burden onto parents. "Currently, transferring money between different banks is free, so why should paying school fees cost money?" parent AD asked.

Many other parents questioned why they didn't deposit the money into the school's account instead of paying for the software, which they felt was a separate issue. Furthermore, many parents didn't even know how to use the software.

"In Dong Hoi City, many schools require parents to transfer money to three different places: one to the school's account, one to the homeroom teacher, and one through a software program... It's really confusing," another parent reported.

We will discuss this again in the direction of… free of charge.

According to Mr. Hai, the policy of collecting fees through the payment software has been approved by the City Party Committee and the People's Committee of Dong Hoi City.

On October 24th, a reporter from Thanh Nien Newspaper had a discussion with a leader of Dong Hoi City. This official affirmed that digital transformation and the reduction of cash usage are global trends and major policies of the Government ; therefore, all activities in modern life should move towards them, and education is no exception.

According to the leaders of the Dong Hoi City People's Committee, the policy of collecting fees when paying tuition through the software needs to be reconsidered more carefully.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY NGUYEN PHUC

"Digital transformation and cashless payments in the education sector in Dong Hoi City are absolutely correct. However, the policy of collecting fees through the online payment software, which was recently introduced, has faced public and parental backlash, which is understandable," this person acknowledged.

According to this official, digital transformation must also ensure a harmonious balance of interests among the education sector, educational institutions, and parents and students. For these reasons, the leader of the Dong Hoi City People's Committee stated that the city will soon revisit this issue, focusing on how to continue offering free education. "Although we know it's difficult, we will do our best to ensure that parents are not disadvantaged," this official reaffirmed.

This cautious approach by the leaders of the Dong Hoi City People's Committee is reasonable. According to information from the Dong Hoi City Department of Education and Training, in the 2022-2023 school year alone, with 32 participating schools, there were 43,000 transactions totaling 16 billion VND.

In the 2023-2024 school year, with the addition of 20 new schools participating in cashless payments, a total of 30,000 students will be paying fees through the software. This means tens of thousands of parents will be affected if the policy of collecting fees through the software is approved.

Source link: https://thanhnien.vn/nhieu-phu-huynh-o-tpdong-hoi-phan-doi-thu-phi-khi-dong-tien-hoc-qua-phan-mem-18523102414425954.htm