Extracurricular and practical classes of students at a high school in Hanoi - Photo: V.HA
It is undeniable that many schools consider the socialization ofeducation as "asking for money from parents". Those who are good at it "ask without being sued", while those who are not good at it, even impatient, wanting to quickly achieve their goals, apply inappropriate methods, even make mistakes, leading to reactions from parents and public opinion.
In this case, socialization of education turns into "overcharging school fees".
Principals - the "tightrope walkers"
Principals are the ones who "walk on a tightrope" because sometimes the line between right and wrong is very thin.
"Socialization is always hard work, requiring "brainstorming" and accepting elements of adventure and risk," said Ms. H., principal of a high school in Tay Ho district (Hanoi).
Because of this, Ms. H. believes that principals who want to be safe for themselves choose to "do nothing". But if they want the best for their students, they have to do something and accept that there will be mistakes.
"There are many things that need to be done, without the parents' help, the school cannot do anything. I'll just give an example of a small thing like making student cards for students to easily manage them coming and going to school, if we don't ask the parents, we won't have the money. Or a bigger thing, according to the new program, we have many experiential lessons.
The school has contacted the destination such as nursery farms, university laboratories depending on the learning content and also received free support from partners. However, students come to study, damage equipment, damage plants and many other expenses such as vehicles for transportation, we cannot ask the support units to cover. We have to ask for help from parents. Otherwise, it cannot be done," said Ms. H.
Ms. N., principal of a high school in Cau Giay district, said that according to regulations, to be granted funding for repairs or investment in equipment, a proposal must be made at the beginning of the year and go through many approval steps. But in reality, during the school year, unexpected events arise, such as the speaker system used for group activities being broken, water pipes bursting, toilets being clogged, etc.
"There are cases where we have people sponsoring money for repairs or new purchases, but the process of "receiving sponsorship" is also very complicated. If it is an object in kind, it can be received in a "turnkey" manner, but if it involves repairs or sponsorship for activities during the school year, it is complicated.
Sometimes the sponsors themselves are discouraged by the procedures. The line between right and wrong is very fragile, there are things that can be right but can also be wrong if there is "reflection". So if you are afraid, it is best not to do anything," Ms. N. confided.
The Ministry of Education and Training's regulations on funding for educational institutions in Circular 16/2018/TT-BGDDT clearly state what can and cannot be funded, and the principles that need to be ensured. However, according to many principals, in reality, there are things that are unclear whether they are allowed or not allowed. So even though there is funding, there is still a fear of making mistakes.
The music corner is located right at the entrance of Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City) so that students and teachers can play the instrument during recess and at home while waiting for their parents to pick them up... This is the result of the socialization of education - Photo: DNC
Understanding correctly will make it easier to do.
"Education socialization can be understood more broadly as 'asking for or receiving money'," Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhiep, principal of Chu Van An High School, shared from her experience as a manager.
According to Ms. Nhiep, in order to do a good job of socializing education, from the time of building the education plan, the school must come up with the content that needs to be done, invested in, implemented in each school year, the implementation method and accompanying conditions.
Based on that, there is a direction to seek support and cooperation. The principal is the person who deals internally (with students, teachers, parents) and externally (with partners, benefactors), how to unify the will in implementing the plan that has been built.
The socialization of education in each school also needs to be viewed more broadly: supporting construction costs, investing in equipment for learning, supporting or coordinating the organization of experiential activities, learning outside the classroom, practice, and experiments to improve capacity and skills, and even participating in building educational plans with the school.
"There are very good parents who have helped us in consulting on building and organizing the school's educational plan, in accordance with the spirit of the 2018 General Education Program. In such cases, help is much more valuable than money because it is ideological support and direction," said Ms. Nhiep.
Sharing this view, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Anh, member of the National Council for Education and Human Resources Development, highly appreciated the role of parents in all aspects of school education activities and considered it a way of "socialization". Because every parent today can be an expert in a certain field with knowledge, capacity and enthusiasm. Therefore, not mobilizing and gathering strength from parents is a waste.
Parents can participate in building activity programs, even go to class to talk, share, guide students to experience a certain field, and organize clubs with teachers.
Parents may not contribute money, but they contribute their efforts, information, and relationships to connect with partners to support the school, help the school handle financial and administrative procedures in various tasks to effectively implement educational content or support investment in a project or equipment to serve students...
A class of teachers and students at Huynh Tan Phat Secondary School, District 7, Ho Chi Minh City - Photo: NHU HUNG
Lax management
To manage and encourage socialization in the form of joint teaching, the Government issued Decree No. 24/2021/ND-CP dated March 23, 2021 on the management of public kindergartens and general schools, which stipulates that educational institutions are allowed to proactively cooperate with universities, research institutions, vocational training institutions, enterprises, business households, organizations, individuals and students' families to organize educational activities suitable to local conditions in accordance with the provisions of law.
The Ministry of Education and Training also issued documents to create a legal corridor for localities to organize implementation according to their authority, including: regulations on the management of life skills education activities and extracurricular educational activities, regulations on the organization and operation of foreign language and information technology centers, etc.
However, according to the Ministry of Education and Training, many departments of education and training have lax management of joint activities and lack of inspection and supervision, leading to many educational institutions not implementing regulations properly.
Parents donate stone benches, school dares not accept
Students of Nguyen Sieu Inter-level High School (Hanoi) experience cooking - Photo: VH
At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the principal of a famous elementary school in District 1 (HCMC) received a phone call from a parent: "Teacher, our group of 5th grade parents wants to give the school 10 stone benches. This is a gift from parents to thank teachers when their children graduate from elementary school. The car is currently on the way, they will bring it to the school soon."
Instead of happily accepting the precious gift, the principal apologized to the parents, saying that she wanted to know specific information about who donated the gift to the school and how the parents raised the funds.
"The mechanism of socializing education in general and Circular 16 of the Ministry of Education and Training regulating funding for educational institutions in particular have many complicated procedures. We do not want to be involved in money, so we often suggest to parents to do it in the form of "turnkey".
For example, if your child's class needs an air conditioner, parents can buy an air conditioner and bring it to the classroom to install. But the "turnkey" form is also very troublesome for parents. We were instructed that when individual parents want to donate supplies to the school, they must submit a donation application. If they have to submit an application to donate supplies and money, who would still want to donate?
"If parents want to raise funds to buy something for the school, they need to make a plan and the school must post it publicly. This plan must be approved by the competent authority before it can be implemented," said a leader of a primary school in Ho Chi Minh City.
Speaking to Tuoi Tre, an official from the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said: "Current regulations on socialization of education are making some managers hesitate. They are afraid of being accused of being dirty about money, afraid of being named in the media when mobilizing parents to contribute resources to education."
However, in many conferences and seminars on socialization of education, leaders of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City have repeatedly acknowledged that in addition to the State's attention and investment in education, the intellectual and material support of parents has contributed to the development of Ho Chi Minh City's education sector as it is today.
Not to mention, many people have concluded that in schools that effectively implement socialization, the facilities are more spacious, teaching equipment is more complete, and the quality of education increases faster...
Also according to the report of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, in recent years, the investment funding sources for repairing and building schools have the following proportions: the state budget accounts for about 60%, loans from investment funds and other sources account for about 15% and socialized capital accounts for 25%.
In addition to tuition fees, parents of students at schools have voluntarily contributed to funding teaching and learning activities and equipping facilities, averaging about 450 billion VND per year.
The structure of parents' funding sources often includes: regular activities serving students' learning; reward funds for students at the end of the semester and school year; support for visits, illness, and unexpected activities in the classroom and school; contributions to improving facilities, small purchases for schools, and minor repairs to schools...
It is known that the policy of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee in the socialization of education in the coming time is to innovate the policy mechanism and state management on the socialization of education.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen the management and coordination of forces participating in socialization work such as building and implementing a coordination mechanism between departments, branches and organizations from the city to local levels to mobilize social forces to participate in education; forming a close connection between the three environments: school - family - society...
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/xa-hoi-hoa-giao-duc-sao-de-khong-thanh-lam-thu-khong-hanh-phu-huynh-2025053109483443.htm
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