The parents' representative committee of Nguyen Binh Khiem Primary School, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City arrived at school at 5am to supervise the students' meals, from the receiving stage to the food preparation process and organizing lunch for the students - Photo: HOANG HUONG
Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, affirmed that the activities of the parent-teacher association are very necessary and indispensable in schools today.
Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training
Schools must orient
"In fact, the parent-teacher association in many schools and classes has been doing a very good job of coordinating with the school to comprehensively educate students.
They are enthusiastic and responsible people. They not only contribute materially but also spend time, effort and intelligence to accompany student education activities, helping the school to complete its tasks well," said Mr. Quoc.
Mr. Quoc also admitted: "However, there are also some parent-teacher associations that collect and spend money in violation of regulations, causing frustration for parents and society. Regarding this issue, school boards need to pay attention and promote propaganda so that every parent clearly understands the role and responsibilities of the parent-teacher association.
At the beginning of the school year, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City issued documents guiding revenue and expenditure. If schools follow these documents, there will be no abuse of the name of the parent-teacher association to collect illegal fees.
According to Mr. Quoc: Circular 55/2011/TT-BGDDT of the Ministry of Education and Training on the Charter of the Parents' Representative Board clearly stipulates the tasks, operating costs as well as the management and use of funds of the Parents' Representative Board.
In particular, it should be reiterated that the parents' representative board is not allowed to collect donations from students or their families: Donations that are not voluntary; Donations that do not directly serve the activities of the parents' representative board such as:
Protecting school facilities, ensuring school security; supervising students' vehicles; cleaning classrooms and schools; rewarding school administrators, teachers and staff; purchasing machinery, equipment and teaching aids for schools, classrooms or for school administrators, teachers and staff; supporting management, teaching and learning organization and educational activities; repairing, upgrading and constructing new school facilities.
The parent-teacher association is dependent on the principal.
"Many people think that the parent-teacher association should be abolished in schools because it is unnecessary, because they are the committee that collects money, an extension of the principal... I think that they are just bad apples that spoil the bunch, and the school board must be jointly responsible for the mistakes of the parent-teacher association," said Mr. NHD, a math teacher with 20 years of experience as a homeroom teacher in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mr. D. said that he has taught at three different high schools and has worked with parent-teacher associations of many different backgrounds and personalities. One thing they have in common is that most parent-teacher associations want to do the best for their children.
However, whether the parent-teacher association fulfills its responsibilities or not depends on the school principals. Some schools, when the parent-teacher association makes a request, immediately agree and invite them to supervise the lunch. But in other schools, when the parent-teacher association makes a request, the principal tries to make things difficult for them, discouraging them.
After the above experiences, Mr. D. concluded: "No parent is trained to be a parent representative. Therefore, any school board that is open, friendly, and works with the interests of the students first will have a parent representative board that has no bad reputation and operates very effectively, and vice versa."
Similarly, Ms. Th.D. - a parent whose child is in grade 8 at a middle school in Tan Binh district - said: "When my child was in elementary school, I used to be a representative of the parents, but because the school's board of directors did not listen to the parents to improve the bad things, they always asked us to mobilize the parents to fix this and buy that.
The shopping was also very funny, it was our money but we had to choose a supplier who was familiar with the principal. I felt that if we continued like this, it would not be good, so I was so discouraged that I withdrew my name and stopped being a member of the parents' representative committee."
Ms. Th. shared that when her child entered middle school, the school's board of directors was very different. At the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year, the school lunch for Ms. Th.'s child had too little protein, and the children complained that they were not full and the food was not delicious.
"We reported it to the school's parent representative board. The next day, they asked the school's board of directors to supervise the students' meals. The board worked with the school and personally went to find out about the facility providing meals for the students; went to the place where the food was prepared, took pictures, filmed videos...; contacted the authorities to determine whether this facility had a food safety certificate or not.
In general, they worked very quickly and just a few days later my child's school had to change to another industrial catering facility. And after the change, the school's parent representative committee still assigned people to go to school every day at noon to see how the students were eating and whether the quality of the meals had improved.
I tell this story to show how important the role of the parents' representative committee is," added Ms. Th.
No ambiguity in fundraising
According to Mr. Nguyen Bao Quoc, the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City requires school boards to be more closely involved in the activities of parent-teacher associations.
"There cannot be any confusion between raising funds for the activities of the parents' representative committee and mobilizing parents to sponsor education.
Furthermore, it is necessary to understand that the parents' representative committee are dedicated people who want to contribute to education, but the activities of the parents' representative committee need guidance and support from the school, on the basis of doing the best for the students but must comply with regulations" - Mr. Quoc said.
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/lam-sao-de-ban-dai-dien-cha-me-hoc-sinh-hoat-dong-dung-chuc-trach-20241012084402996.htm
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