Teacher's confession: 'Mobilizing school funds, who can I confide in?'

Following the opinions of readers on Tuoi Tre Online about the voluntary school fee collection at the beginning of the school year, I completely sympathize with the confession 'sometimes I don't agree, I want to not sign but then I have to sign'.

Illustration: DAD

One of the concerns of parents at the beginning of the school year is the collection of class funds and school fees. Parents often "blame" the parent association and homeroom teachers for inventing the collection fees, creating more burdens for parents. But on the contrary, teachers and representatives also have their own "worries".

Reader Thanh Nguyen - a teacher - sent Tuoi Tre Online an article sharing about this issue.

When bad reputation is poured on the school gate

Only those who have children in school can understand the desire for children to study, train and play in a safe, quality school environment.

With this same wish, when the school suggests buying this, buying that, or supporting this, parents can join hands to take care of their children's education without hesitation or calculation.

However, some schools have collected fees under the name of "voluntary", which makes many parents angry. Then the bad reputation is poured on the school gate.

But not all schools collect excessive fees. Even more so, not all parents' associations are "extended arms" of the school board.

I say this to hope that parents will stay calm when faced with online comments, and not rush to criticize or demand the elimination of the parent association.

And I also hope everyone will open their hearts to share the feelings of teachers about the arduous task of collecting school fees.

Collecting school fees is a task that has nothing to do with teaching and educating students, but it has been tied to the homeroom teacher for some time now. We are fortunate to have been understanding, so in recent years, the collection of fees has been transferred directly to the school office.

However, I know my colleagues here and there are still not "unleashed" from the "collection curriculum" full of numbers.

Although the school does not directly collect money, the responsibility of mobilizing the money is still assigned to the homeroom teacher. Every year at the beginning of the school year, when the school bell rings a few weeks later, the parent-teacher conference season also begins.

Homeroom teacher "takes the lead" and answers questions

How great it would be if the first meeting of the year between teachers and parents was an opportunity to discuss the new school year's tasks, disseminate new regulations, update children's learning situation and discipline in order to build a smooth connection between school and family to promote children's learning.

Unfortunately, many meetings involve agreeing on fees. Which fees to collect and how much to collect are all agreed upon by the school board and the parents' association. At the beginning of the meeting, teachers receive a series of papers, of which the notices of school fees and the minutes of the collection campaign are the heaviest.

Teachers directly inform parents about the fees in class, then "take the lead" in answering parents' questions and objections about the fees.

My colleagues recounted many times their eyes welled up with tears when they heard parents' tense comments about school fees: "Why do you campaign every year to tile the school yard?", "We pay the full sanitation fee but the restrooms are so dirty"...

There are even some gossips behind the scenes that hurt people's hearts for a long time.

No matter how heavy-hearted, the teacher in charge of the class must fulfill the responsibility of mobilizing the parents' consent, so he must skillfully choose his words and even soften his tone to persuade everyone present to agree 100%, and sign in unison to hand over the valid documents to the school.

The effectiveness of homeroom teachers and their ability to deal with parents over the years has been evaluated based on the fundraising for school fees at the beginning of the year? This is really unfair to teachers!

Every time the first parent-teacher conference of the school year knocks on the door, not only do parents worry about the burden of tuition fees, but teachers' hearts are also burdened with the responsibility of raising school fees...

THANH NGUYEN

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tam-su-giao-vien-van-dong-cac-khoan-tien-truong-noi-long-biet-to-cung-ai-20250915093618753.htm