When hearing the news that the first year university tuition fee was 41 million VND, Ms. Pham Thi Ly (37 years old) - a garment worker in Bac Giang - was quite "shocked".
“Before that, my son and I found out that the tuition fee for 2023 was about 30 million VND, but this year it skyrocketed to 41 million VND. Beyond my imagination, I had to borrow more money to have enough money to pay for my son to enroll in school,” Ms. Ly confided.
The female worker shared that 3 years ago, she asked her child about her future career and university. This was also the time when she and her husband decided to save money each month, setting aside 2 million VND to prepare for their child.
However, according to Ms. Ly, the amount of 41 million VND is only the initial tuition fee, not including other fees for the new school year. The more she calculated, the more the female worker felt sorry and worried.
“Food, accommodation, transportation, computer, books, insurance, and participation in school programs. Even with savings, it would still take nearly 20 million VND to be enough,” Ms. Ly worried.
Ms. Ly's worries did not stop there when she heard the school announced that tuition fees could increase by 10% each year. Thus, by the fourth year of university, the tuition fees for her eldest child could increase to nearly 55 million VND/year.
Understanding her parents’ worries about raising two children, Ms. Ly’s eldest son, who passed the university entrance exam, decided to live in the school dormitory to save money. In addition, the female worker’s child also postponed buying a computer.
Sharing her wishes, the female worker hopes that tuition fees for the following years will remain the same and not increase. That way, she and her family will feel more secure in saving money every month to pay for their children's tuition while still ensuring the family's livelihood.
Ms. Pham Thi Thu (40 years old, Nam Dinh) shared that although the income of 17 million VND/month of the couple in the countryside is not poor, it is very difficult to raise 2 older children in university and the youngest child in elementary school.
“Every month, my husband and I spend 9 million VND to pay tuition fees for our three children. The oldest child gets 4 million VND, the second child gets 3.5 million VND, and the youngest child gets 1 million VND. The cost of food, accommodation, and daily living expenses for the two older children in Hanoi is another 3 million VND/month,” Ms. Thu confided.
Adding other expenses in the family, Ms. Thu said that if she can save, it is just enough, otherwise she has to borrow from 1 to 2 million VND every month.
Talking about her plan to save money for her two children to go to college, Ms. Thu said that for the past two years, she has been working overtime until 7:30 p.m. Although her husband is a freelancer, he also takes on many other jobs to increase his income.
According to Ms. Thu, if she does not work overtime and her husband does the same work as before, the couple's combined income will only be a maximum of 14 million VND. With this income, the female worker said she cannot afford to send her two children to college at the same time.
Understanding the hardships of their parents, Ms. Thu's two children decided to live together despite the distance to school being more than 7km. In addition, in the first year, her second child also chose to go to school by bus to save on the cost of buying a car and fuel for daily travel.
Ms. Thu hopes that the government will pay more attention to students in remote provinces who are in difficult circumstances. The female worker hopes to be able to borrow money without interest or with low interest rates during her children's university studies.
