Every month, Ms. Pham Phuong Linh's family (Hanoi) spends about 1.3 million for their son in grade 1, including: Boarding care, English tuition, drinking money, and extracurricular school attendance.
With the joint English program, students will study 2 sessions/week, study with foreign teachers and mainly learn interaction and communication. In addition to English, the school opens more clubs outside of class such as chess, painting, martial arts, ... according to demand, tuition fees range from 300,000 - 350,000 VND/month.
For the English-language program, learning clubs after hours, the school has surveyed parents' wishes since the beginning of the school year, based on the number of parents registered to organize and arrange classes.
After nearly a semester, Ms. Phuong Linh said that her child's studies are relatively good, but with the English program, she hopes that in the coming time, the quality will improve even more.
"My child's English is quite good compared to the general level because I have been exposed to it since preschool. I registered to study at school so that my child could rub shoulders and spend more time interacting with foreign teachers. As for the cost of taking care of children after work, the family finds it reasonable because of the nature of the job, and cannot pick up the children early" - Ms. Linh shared.
Ms. Pham Hong Thuy (a parent with a child studying in grade 6 in Hanoi) shared that each month her family spends 3-4 million for expenses related to their child's education, including the cost of learning skills and extra classes outside. If only considering the fees at school, the cost of being exempted from tuition fees, in general, not much will change.
"For example, last year, my child had to pay a tuition fee of 217,000 VND/month. This year, I don't have to pay anymore, I have reduced a part, but overall, the monthly education expenses have not decreased much" - Ms. Thuy expressed.
Tuition exemption brings joy to many parents, however, the total cost of education in reality has not tended to decrease. The reason is that expenses other than tuition continue to increase every year.
According to the results of the Vietnam Population Survey of the Statistical Office, in 2022, the average cost of education and training for a person studying is about 7 million VND/year. By 2024, this figure will be 9.5 million VND, an increase of 36.3% compared to 2022 (7 million VND).
In the National Assembly's discussion session on investing in the National Target Program on modernizing and improving the quality of education and training for the 2026-2035 period, the 10th session of the 15th National Assembly, delegate Chu Thi Hong Thai (Lang Son delegation) said that in the name of the State implementing the policy of exempting or not increasing tuition fees, in reality, the total educational costs that households have to bear can still increase through revenues other than tuition fees such as socialization, sponsorship, equipment, and experiential activities.
"If not strictly identified and controlled, the current socialization mechanism can reduce the effectiveness of the tuition exemption policy, while increasing financial pressure on poor families, especially in ethnic minority areas, going against the goal of fairness in education" - Ms. Thai said.
These opinions have received the approval of many parents across the country. Many opinions say that, in addition to exempting tuition fees, there should be a mechanism to strictly manage and control other expenses in education, while increasing support for students and families.
