13 rosewood trees cost 130 million VND because they match the landscape

(Dan Tri) - Nguyen Du Secondary School in Ha Tinh caused a stir when it mobilized more than 800 million VND to buy televisions, tables, chairs, equipment, and plant rosewood trees. The school's leaders spoke up about this issue.

Over the past two days, Facebook has been spreading a list of social mobilization funds for the 2025-2026 school year of Nguyen Du Secondary School (Thanh Sen Ward, Ha Tinh Province) with a total estimated budget of more than 800 million VND.

According to the budget, the school plans to mobilize support for 6 items, including: student desks and chairs, televisions, decorating 15 new classrooms, training equipment for the multi-purpose hall, planting shade trees according to the new schoolyard plan, and repairing and renovating flower beds and teaching equipment.

Nguyen Du Secondary School's budget estimate calls for sponsorship (Photo: Screenshot).

Notably, this list includes planting 10 rosewood trees worth 130 million VND (13 million VND/tree) and repairing and renovating flower beds worth 50 million VND.

Some opinions say that this is not really necessary expense, easily creating pressure for parents in the context of the locality being affected by two big storms (storms No. 5 and No. 10).

On October 24, Mr. Le Ngoc Anh, Principal of Nguyen Du Secondary School, said that the above budget is part of the plan to mobilize social resources for education in the 2025-2026 school year. The goal is to mobilize the cooperation of parents, businesses and the community to supplement facilities for teaching and learning.

"The plan has been made public on the school website since September and sent to parents of each class. All donations are voluntary, and parents are not required to contribute," Mr. Ngoc Anh affirmed.

Nguyen Du Secondary School has 32 classes with 1,408 students. Over the years, the government has invested more than 54 billion VND to build two three-story school buildings, a multi-purpose hall, a school yard, landscaping and basic equipment.

However, this school year, the school added 3 new classes with 135 students, while many desks, chairs and equipment were damaged. Therefore, the school needs to mobilize more social resources to meet learning needs.

Nguyen Du Secondary School (Photo: Van Nguyen).

Regarding the 130 million VND worth of rosewood tree planting project, Mr. Ngoc Anh said that all the trees were sponsored by businesses, the school only included them in the budget to ensure publicity and transparency of the mobilization categories.

According to the principal, the rosewood tree was chosen because it fits the landscape and has good coverage. Many schools in the area have planted this type of tree and it has proven to be very beautiful.

According to the leader of Nguyen Du Secondary School, for the TV and smart board items, the school has only stopped at the step of surveying and evaluating prices from a number of suppliers.

The implementation will comply with regulations, purchases worth over 100 million VND must be made through bidding, ensuring procedures and transparency.

Mr. Le Ngoc Anh added that the school is still in the mobilization phase, and organizations and individuals can support in cash or in kind, depending on conditions.

For parents and students, the school only disseminates information on a voluntary basis, without coercion. The entire mobilization plan has been approved by the People's Committee of Thanh Sen Ward before being made public.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/truong-van-dong-13-cay-giang-huong-gia-130-trieu-dong-vi-phu-hop-canh-quan-20251024201842881.htm