According to the Draft Circular, the Parents' Representative Board is not allowed to collect money or receive sponsorships for the school.
For a long time, many Parent Representative Boards have been "distorted" in function. They should have been a bridge between families and schools to jointly take care of students' learning and training, but they have become "financial mobilization boards".
It is worth mentioning that most of the fees are introduced with the two words "voluntary". But everyone understands that when almost the whole class pays, only a few parents have not paid, voluntariness can easily turn into pressure. That is the reason why every beginning of the school year, the story of overcharging heats up on forums, in meetings with voters and in the assembly hall.
To end a phenomenon that has lasted for many years, it is necessary to handle the "bottleneck" correctly. And the biggest "bottleneck" is the fact that the Parents' Representative Board stands out to collect fees for the school.
This draft clearly stipulates: Parents' representative boards do not have legal status, do not have private accounts, are not allowed to act in the name of the school to carry out transactions; are not allowed to collect money for protecting facilities, purchasing teaching equipment, rewarding teachers or supporting school management activities.
In particular, the principle that contributions must be completely voluntary, not applying the average level, not assigning targets and must publicly collect and spend is a necessary "legal barrier" to protect the rights of parents.
Many people have raised the issue of dissolving the Parents' Representative Board because of too many rumors. But in reality, it is not the representative board itself that is the problem, but the way it operates and the abuse of functions.
A true representative board will be the companion of teachers in moral education, life skills, connecting families with schools, sharing information to help students improve.
That is also the spirit that the new Circular Draft aims for.
Of course, the circular will only be effective when it truly comes into life. If the principal still loosens management, and the representative board is still exploited to "be named" for non-regulated fees, then no matter how strict the document is, it will be difficult to prevent overcharging.
Therefore, along with the promulgation of new regulations, it is necessary to strictly handle cases of intentional violations, and we cannot let illegal collections continue to be disguised as voluntary.
The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) is going in the right direction when "returning" the Parents' Representative Board to its correct position, which is accompanying education, not accompanying collections.
