A large number of high school students are getting in debt from borrowing money to buy consumer goods or through gambling.
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| A teacher at Nguyen Khuyen School in HCMC talks with students about life skills |
Tra Vinh Province local Le Thi Ngoc Lien has a child in 10th grade. She said she gave her child over VND5 million (USD240) a month for school fees, extra classes, English lessons and computer classes along with VND300,000 pocket money every week.
But the pocket money didn’t prove enough when her son went shopping with friends. Lien's child decided to borrow VND1 million to buy luxury clothes, in return, he had to pay VND50,000 in interest every week until the VND1 million was paid back. Weeks later, Lien's child had racked up VND5 million of debts from buying other items and was paying VND250,000 in interest each week.
Lien paid all of the debts when she found out. Asking the boy who had gave out the loans, he said he also borrowed money from a neighbour so he had to pay them interests or they would visit him.
Another parent, Nguyen Van Hai said that his 9th grade son had borrowed a huge amount of money when he was studying at a boarding school in HCMC.
Hai said his son was a good boy. However, his student friends often went out drinking coffee and watched football matches. They started to bet on the teams. At first, their bets were quite small, consisting of paying for a meal or a drink, but Hai's son became addicted and owed others nearly VND10 million. He tried to borrow more money from his parents claiming that he had extra classes or a field trip.
"We got suspicious, but after we met with his teacher and the school's administrators it was too late. We paid the debts then took him back to a school in our hometown in Dong Thap Province to make it easier for us to monitor him." Hai said.
Bui Gia Hieu, Headmaster of Nhan Viet High School said, "The reason for such a situation developing is lax management from the schools. With boarding students, teachers should have tight monitoring over the students' financial activities. We must teach children how to manage and use the money wisely. That's the most important thing. Although we can face difficulties, especially when parents give their children expensive gifts such as mobile phones or cash. It may spoil the children and lead them down the wrong road."
Pham Thi Thuy Vinh, Headmistress of Ngo Thoi Nhiem School said schools should advise parents on how to give children money. Parents also need to contact teachers if the amount of money the child is asking for in terms of school activities seems too unreasonable.
Deputy Head of HCMC Department of Education and Training, Nguyen Hoai Chuong, agreed that knowing how to use money was an important skill and they intended to teach children financial management.
According to Save the Children in Vietnam’s Tran Thi Hue, 100% of parents agreed that children needed to know the value of labour and money, but most of them didn't know how to teach such lessons. 100% said they often gave VND50,000-300,000 pocket money per week but they didn't know how that money was spent. Hue said about 50% parents don't care about such issues and many wanted to use money to remain popular with their children.
