At the beginning of the school year, some parents with children studying at An Binh Kindergarten (Dong Cuong commune, Lao Cai province) reported that they had to pay 500,000 VND/child to buy boarding school supplies.
However, in reality, the school reuses old items from the previous school year and uses charity goods, and spends very little on purchases.
Through working between parents and homeroom teachers, all this money was transferred to the school, after which the Principal only approved the purchase of some items for the classes.
"The school has 9 classes, one class has nearly 30 children but can only buy 10 - 15 color boxes, sleeping pillows or sandals are also very few. Not to mention that charity groups occasionally give toys and school supplies to the list to report to parents who are schools for shopping," a parent revealed.
Many teachers here also reflected that even the monthly overtime pay had to be paid to the school treasurer and not used.
For example, in January 2025, a teacher, after receiving an additional hourly tuition fee of VND 1,567,200 (according to the salary coefficient) from the State Treasury, must then transfer it to the personal account of treasurer Luu Thi Duyen at VND 1,567,200.
Similar to the remaining months, teachers must return to the school up to every penny after receiving the overtime pay.
"From 2023 to now, 20 teachers of the school have to transfer monthly overtime pay to the treasurer at the request of the Principal. We have only been informed by the Principal through meetings about this amount of money for the school to... pay off the debt," said a teacher (who asked to remain anonymous).
At a working session with Lao Dong Newspaper reporters on October 21, Ms. Doan Thi Le Xuan - Principal of An Binh Kindergarten - affirmed: Every month, teachers are still paid for extra teaching hours (Saturday and Sunday) and are not transferred to the school.
Regarding other reflections, Ms. Doan Thi Le Xuan said she would review and check.
Informing Lao Dong, many teachers said that after working with reporters, the Board of Directors held a meeting to find a "resistance" solution.
At the meeting, Ms. Doan Thi Le Xuan - Principal of An Binh Kindergarten - requested that teachers agree not to be informed about transferring overtime pay to the treasurer.
They can answer that the purpose of transferring money to Ms. Luu Thi Duyen was to get cash. With transfers with the words "paying overtime", people say that compensation is for children's tuition costs (? )
Receiving information from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Le Thanh Hung - Chairman of Dong Cuong Commune People's Committee - said: Will direct the Principal of An Binh Kindergarten to report and strictly handle if violations are detected.
The collective of teachers at An Binh Kindergarten hopes that the authorities will soon investigate and clarify violations in illegal collection and expenditure at the school.
"If the police meet each teacher personally, we will tell the whole truth about the past many years. There is no way we transfer money to the treasurer to ask for cash (because the money from the State Treasury is transferred to the teacher and then transferred to the treasurer exactly every penny) and there is no way the school collects overtime pay and then divides it equally in cash for each teacher," a teacher expressed.
