Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan - a parent whose child is in first grade at a public primary school in Hanoi - said that the total cost that the family has to pay for their child in a month is about 1.2 million VND.
Of which, the cost of care and boarding is 235,000 VND; the cost of food is 682,000 VND; the cost of drinking water is 12,000 VND. In addition, the family also registered their children to take a life skills class with a fee of 60,000 VND/month, participate in an after-hours STEM club at school with a fee of 120,000 VND, and an English program with a fee of 150,000 VND/month.
According to Ms. Lan, these are popular expenses for primary school students today. The tuition exemption is practical, but the level of financial burden reduction depends on the economic conditions and educational expectations of each family.
"Each family has a different way of allocating spending for education and investment level. The State's tuition exemption policy is a correct policy, similar to social support policies, helping many families reduce basic costs and create conditions for children to access education more easily, especially for families who do not have too much expectation or do not have the conditions to invest heavily in their children's education" - Ms. Lan said and expressed her hope that when there are such active support policies, parents also hope that the quality of education and school facilities will continue to be improved accordingly.
Meanwhile, Ms. Tran Thi Huong, a parent with a child in grade 6 in Hanoi, said that even though tuition is exempted, the total educational costs that the family has to pay have not decreased significantly. According to her, this policy only partially supports, while many other contributions to the learning environment still exist and can be completely reviewed to reduce.
From an expert's perspective, Dr. Vu Thu Huong - education expert, former lecturer of the Faculty of Primary Education, Hanoi National University of Education, commented that financial pressure on families today does not come from tuition fees, but mainly from the mechanism of socializing education. When learning conditions and the school environment are relatively complete, continuing to promote socialization widely may no longer be appropriate. According to her, it is time to review the entire investment system for education, from input to output, in order to build a unified and reasonable system.
"Socializing education in the current context can easily lead to a situation where many fees are not really necessary. In reality, there are unreasonable fees, such as air conditioning rental fees, but they are still accepted because they are associated with the name of socialization, making it difficult for parents to refuse or escape the pressure to contribute.
From the above reality, it can be seen that reducing the burden of education costs is not only the desire of parents but also an issue that needs to be reviewed in the organization and management of school activities. When the fees are transparent, reasonable and streamlined, students will be the beneficiaries" - Ms. Huong suggested.
Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong - Former Permanent Vice President of the Vietnam Association for the Promotion of Education commented that the tuition exemption policy is a great policy for the people. However, many people are still worried because in addition to tuition fees, they also have to bear many fees such as building schools, buying air conditioners, projectors, boarding meals, uniforms, etc. In addition to these fees, the amount of money is much larger than tuition fees.
"Many parents are afraid of having to pay additional fees rather than tuition fees and hope to exempt tuition fees so that they can pay additional fees first" - Prof. Dr. Pham Tat Dong said and said that the education sector should have clear regulations on fees to reduce pressure on parents.
