The tuitions set up by private grammar schools have increased dramatically. However, the state cannot make intervention in this case, because the tuitions of private schools are defined based on the negotiations between parents and schools.
There is no tuition frame for private run schools, and there is no regulation on the school fee for private run schools. As a result, the tuitions of private schools, which are always high, have been increasing dramatically.
The Doan Thi Diem Primary School has “made a high jump” when it raises the tuitions from VND1.8 million (USD86.53) to VND3 million (USD144.23) a month. The Le Quy Don School requires parents to pay 4.5 million dong a month instead of 3.4 million dong for tuitions, meals, buses to pick up students. Meanwhile, the Nguyen Sieu Primary School has raised the tuition from USD160-USD200.
All the private schools, from nursery schools to high schools, have raised the tuitions applied for the 2011-2012 academic year.
The tuitions and school fees which only exist at private schools
Parents not only feel worried sick about the high tuitions, but also about other kinds of fees, which only exist at private schools.
The nursery school New Star Kids on Chua Ha Street in Hanoi, puts the children aged from 18 to 60 months old into different classes. Smallest children have to pay the tuition of USD145 per month, while older children have to pay the same tuition level of USD140 a month.
Especially, when admitting to the school, children have to pay USD70. If children try lessons at the school, parents would still have to pay ½ of the admission fee (USD35) plus the tuitions of USD7 for a half of day, or 8 USD for the whole day.
The school stipulates that parents have to pay USD80 a year for learning aids, for preparing children to study English and dancing.
However, when a Tien phong’s reporter asked if the school will reduces the school fee, if her child is less than three years old and she does not need to prepare to “get used to English” and learn dancing, the managers of the school said “no”, adding that the money would be spent on upgrading the meals.
At Academy school, besides the sum of USD200 for textbooks, parents also have to pay additional money for “international books” which has been explained by the school as the “fee for sending staff to purchase books and manage books”.
Parents have no other choice than paying additional money
Parents complain that they have never been consulted by the schools about the tuitions and school fees.
They also say that many kinds of fee are unreasonable. Most of private nursery schools set classes in rent rooms, but parents still have the fees for “building schools.”
Explaining this, the manager of a private run school in Yen Hoa urban area in Cau Giay District, said that it is true that the money paid by parents have been used to upgrade the material facilities conditions of the school.
“For example, electric fans need to be replaced once every six months, because the products nowadays are not good,” he said.
Some parents of Academy School said that they tried to ask the school’s board of management about the fees, but they have not got the answers. “N”, whose son is a third grader of the school, told Tien Phong that a lot of parents have decided to bring their children to other schools because of the unreasonable school fees. However, the school has asked them to pay money before leaving.
It is really difficult for parents in Hanoi to choose the schools to bring their children to. State owned schools set lower tuitions, but they are all overloaded. Meanwhile, private schools always have idle seats, but require overly high tuitions.
