Many parents worry 'tuition is free but surcharges increase by 3'

Parents and experts agree to the policy of exempting tuition fees for overseas students but still worry about collecting school fees or other types of fees.

Ms. Tran Le Huyen Anh (46 years old, Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi) was delighted when the Politburo decided to exempt tuition fees for students of all levels from the 2025-2026 school year. This is a humane policy, demonstrating the consensus and determination of the Party and State in promoting education and caring for the cause of cultivating people. The policy will create opportunities for all children, especially those from poor families, to access a better learning environment.

For many families, public school tuition is not much, so exemption or not is not important. But for poor families, especially those in remote areas, exemption of one penny of tuition can help reduce ten percent of the burden in their lives.

However, with the current state of education, Ms. Huyen Anh is worried, the annual tuition fee is less than 1 million VND/student, this is only secondary, what makes parents bear the burden are the additional fees. These are voluntary contributions such as English tuition, IT, soft skills, fees for extracurricular activities... Not to mention the "overcharging" fees that are scheduled to come up again and again that many schools still do at the beginning of the school year, causing long-term frustration for parents and society.

Tuition is free but parents are still worried about additional fees increasing 3-4 times. (Illustration photo: TT)

These amounts, though small, when added together become a significant burden for families, especially when they are not publicly disclosed and not closely monitored by authorities, Ms. Huyen Anh raised the issue.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao (39 years old, Vinh Yen, Vinh Phuc) is happy because from now on her children can go to school for free, which will reduce the family's monthly expenses. However, in addition to the several hundred thousand dong in exempted tuition fees, parents will still need to pay several million dong each school year.

“My child is exempted from tuition fees, but the surcharges for facilities, electricity and water, boarding fees and other fees at school are not exempted, we still have to pay, so the worry is still there. I am even worried that schools will increase the surcharges 3-4 times to compensate for the reduced tuition fees, this is not uncommon," she worried.

The parent also questioned whether the overcrowding in public schools would increase when the Politburo exempts tuition fees. The mother feared that from the next school year, families would rush to enroll their children in public schools, causing the competition rate to increase, children would struggle to study, and parents would also be tired of "fighting" for their children's places.

Dr. Dinh Anh Tuan, an education expert, said that tuition exemption needs to be synchronized with other mechanisms, with special attention paid to revenues and expenditures at the beginning of the school year. Not only tuition exemption, but all unreasonable fees in schools today must be eliminated, except for legitimate fees such as boarding fees, transportation fees, etc. Unreasonable fees such as fees for student records, painting boards, buying lights, fans, buying chairs for flag-raising ceremonies, cleaning fees, security fees, etc. must of course be covered by public schools.

In fact, for many years, parents have complained about having to contribute nearly ten million VND for their children at the beginning of the school year. Looking at the list of homeroom teachers, tuition only accounts for 20%, the rest is all the social expenses, extra classes, donations... that are the burden.

According to this person, localities need to have additional policies to compensate tuition fees for students in non-public schools, ensuring teachers' income to minimize extra teaching, "avoiding the situation where students are exempted from tuition fees but the school increases the surcharge 3-4 times".

At the same time, although tuition is free, the issue of investment in school maintenance still needs to be paid attention to by local authorities to ensure a safe learning environment, said Mr. Tuan.

Decree No. 81/2021 of the Government on the mechanism for collecting and managing tuition fees, defines tuition fees as: "the amount of money that learners must pay to cover part or all of the costs of educational and training services. The tuition fee level is determined according to the roadmap for ensuring the costs of educational and training services prescribed in this Decree".

Clause 6, Article 15 of Decree No. 81 stipulates that, in addition to tuition fees, students may still need to pay service fees to support educational activities of public preschool and general education institutions in addition to tuition fees. In addition, students need to pay for health insurance (mandatory, except for those exempted as specifically prescribed).

Khanh Huyen

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/nhieu-phu-huynh-lo-hoc-phi-duoc-mien-nhung-phu-phi-tang-3-4-dong-ar930033.html