Parents exasperated at increasing tuition requests

Parents exasperated at increasing tuition requests. Source: everestschool.edu.vn

Parents of students in some private schools have expressed their frustration with the tuition and fee requirements for the new school year. Parents of students at inter-level school Everest in Hanoi’s North Tu Liem district have submitted petitions and held frank discussions with the school about the fees for both the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. However, the two sides have yet to agree.

“As the pandemic has hit the incomes of most families, raising tuition by 5 per cent is unacceptable,” said Quynh Anh, a parent at Everest.

Moreover, tuition for online study at 80 per cent of the regular fee is not affordable, too. “If students go to school, they will study all day. However with online study we should not have to pay more than 60 per cent because children get very little knowledge in the two hours per day, and I have to spend a lot of time teaching my son instead,” added Quynh Anh.

Ngo Thu Hien, mother of a student in primary school at Everest, said that the commitment of the school does not match the performance of her daughter thus far. “During the last few months, my daughter has studied for two hours per day for some basic communication, in English for example. They said that she can read a short story in English after first grade, but my daughter and other students have failed some targets. We are worried about the quality of teaching in Everest, especially during online study,” said Hien.

Along with standard tuition issues, parents have complained that they are being asked to cough up fees for the whole of August even though online study did not begin until half-way through the month. In addition, they claim fees for events, materials, and other supplies are currently “illogical”.

Parents whose children are studying at other Hanoi schools, such as primary school FPT in Cau Giay district, inter-level school Newton in North Tu Liem district, and primary school Le Quy Don in South Tu Liem district are frustrated with fee rises of 4-10 per cent, as well as the general quality of online study.

In locked-down Ho Chi Minh City, international schools are asking for tuition at around VND400-700 million ($17,400-30,400) per school year, including the American School, Saigon South International School, Renaissance International School Saigon, Australian International School, and Vietnam-Australia International School. The increases are between 5-15 per cent, equivalent to $870-4,500 for the school year coming.

In June, Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training sent Document No.1505/BGDDT-KHTC asking private schools not to raise tuition fees for the new school year to share difficulties with parents during the pandemic.

The department hopes to mitigate the number of students dropping out or moving to other schools due to tuition and fees payment, in order to stabilise the study and life of students and their families as much as possible.

However, the view of these education providers is much different. Nguyen Thi Xuan Than, principal of Everest explained to VIR, “When students registered to study in the school, their parents had already agreed with the tuition increase plan, which is spent for maintaining school operations and investing into facilities.”

Than insisted that Everest will further improve the efficiency of spending and transparency, and ensure accountability for students’ parents regularly to make trust and consensus. “At the end of a term and end of the school year, if there is still a balance, we will refund or deduct it from the amounts that parents have to pay next time,” she added.

Regarding online study tuition, Everest representative said that the rate of 80 per cent is the same as other private schools in Hanoi.

“Some others collect 90-95 per cent or even the full sum for online study. This is said to be suitable with the current situation, when the infrastructure and technologies for online learning are quite good, and the skill of teachers and quality of online lectures are being enhanced significantly,” urged Than.

Meanwhile, Cao Quang Tu, admissions director at Asian International School, said that the school has to invest a lot into facilities every year to match the international standards. “It follows the yearly roadmap and has been relayed publicly already. Most revenues will be spent on improvement of the school to achieve international accreditation,” said Tu.

However Tran Xuan Nhi, former Deputy Minister of Education and Training, believes the behaviour is not suitable, especially now. “Upper classes can pay these tuition fees, but many others cannot. If the income of students’ parents does not increase or even decrease a bit, they suffer with increasing tuition fees for the new school year,” said Nhi.

While people are doing their utmost to help each other by providing food and medicine, school owners should also share difficulties with parents instead of raising fees, Nhi added.