Advertising for an American international kindergarten but 5 times 'empty promises' to pay teachers' salaries

Despite having paid tuition for their children for 6 months to 1 year, many parents whose children study at the place advertised as 'Rosemont American International Kindergarten', Long Bien campus, were shocked when teachers 'went on strike' because the school owed wages, and their children were not allowed to go to class.

Students studying at the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong Long Bien (Hanoi) are having to stop going to school because the school is late with salary payments and teachers are on strike - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Today is the second day that children studying at the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong (Phuc Dong ward, Long Bien district) have had to stop going to class because the school continuously "made empty promises" about paying teachers' salaries.

Teachers "on strike", students have to stop going to class

Speaking with Tuoi Tre Online on December 2, Ms. D.TN (Long Bien district) said that her child is studying in the 2-year-old class at the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong (Phuc Dong ward, Long Bien district), with a tuition fee of 7 million VND/month.

According to Ms. N., the program has two levels, including 7 million VND/month and 10 million VND/month. Many parents have paid tuition for their children from 6 months to 1 year.

"On the evening of December 1, I was shocked to receive information that the school's teachers had gone on strike because the school had repeatedly failed to pay teachers' salaries. On December 2, my children were forced to stay home from school because there were no teachers in the classroom.

We are extremely upset that we have paid our child's tuition in full but the school has not resolved the issue of teachers' salaries.

My wish is to get back the money I paid to the school, I don't want my child to continue studying here anymore, because once untrustworthy, forever untrustworthy," said Ms. N.

A teacher at the Long Bien facility said that the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong usually pays teachers' salaries on the 10th of every month. However, on December 1, after 4 promises, the school still did not pay the salary for October 2024, causing teachers to lose confidence in the school.

"The school made promises, we gave the school a chance to accompany us, to overcome difficulties, however after many promises the school did not keep its commitment, so we feel we have lost faith in the school.

We also cannot wait too long, so we decided to inform parents about the school's situation and ask for permission from the teachers to quit their jobs to find other jobs to make a living," said the teacher.

Ms. Ta Thi Mai Phuong (white shirt) worked with parents and teachers on December 2 - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

Organized a parent meeting, signed a salary commitment and then… broke the promise.

According to Tuoi Tre Online , the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong is located in Phuc Dong ward, Long Bien district, Hanoi.

Outside, there are many grandiose billboards such as Rosemont American International Kindergarten, Rosemont Kindergarten. The bulletin boards continuously enroll children from 1-6 years old.

On the morning of December 2, about 20 parents and teachers were present at the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong to attend a parent meeting and listen to school representatives present development plans after the children had to stop going to class because of a teacher strike.

At the meeting, Ms. Ta Thi Phuong Mai said that she is an authorized representative of Rosemont International Cooperation Joint Stock Company, assigned to work with parents.

At the same time, it was confirmed that because the school had not paid the teachers' October salary, students had to take a day off from school.

According to Ms. Mai, the difficulties the school is facing are because the former owner of this kindergarten, Ms. Nhung, "held" 5-7 billion VND that parents paid before March 2024, making it difficult to operate the school.

"Ms. Nhung is the old owner of the school. Due to financial difficulties, she transferred her shares to the new unit. One of the people in the new unit is me.

At the moment, we only owe teachers about 20 days of salary. At the most difficult time, we owed suppliers, rent, and employee salaries... If we had not stepped in at that time, this school would have been shut down immediately," Ms. Mai informed parents.

Because they no longer have faith in the school's leadership, at the meeting, some parents asked the school to refund the tuition fees they had paid. Ms. Mai said that she was only a representative member of the leadership so she did not have the ability, responsibility and authority to give an immediate answer.

Ms. Mai and the parents agreed on the content of the meeting minutes - Photo: NGUYEN BAO

After more than 3 hours of dialogue with parents, Ms. Mai made minutes of the meeting and committed that during office hours on December 2, the school would pay the teachers' full salaries to ensure that on December 3, students would continue to come to school as usual.

At the same time, the school said that it has a team of teachers with sufficient pedagogical skills, who can be transferred from other facilities or newly recruited to receive and care for children from December 3.

This will be done if teachers have received their full salary on December 2 but still have no need to commit and no longer go to school to teach.

However, as of 8:30 p.m. on December 2, teachers at the Long Bien facility had not yet received any salary transferred into their accounts from the school.

At 9:39 p.m. the same day, the school continued to send an open letter to parents, teachers and staff at the Long Bien campus about the temporary suspension of operations on December 3.

"The reason for this change is due to some unplanned issues that the school needs time to adjust and resolve. This means that students will not be able to go to school on December 3.

We pledge to do our best to pay and resolve the related issues and ensure that all school operations return to normal immediately," the announcement stated.

Frustrated because there is no day students can go to school

On December 3, Ms. NTS said she had lost faith in the school when on the night of December 2, she continued to receive information that her child had to stay home from school because the school had promised for the 5th time but still did not pay the teacher's salary.

"Promises were made, and a commitment to pay teachers' salaries was signed "as sure as a nail", but teachers still did not receive their salaries. The school announced that students would continue to be absent, but there was no information on how long it would take to resolve the issue.

We, the parents, are not sure who the school's leadership is, the information is very vague. We are anxious about whether our children can return to school or not, many people have had to take time off work to stay home and take care of their children," said Ms. S.

According to the information portal of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training, the independent preschool Nui Hoa Hong is located at 27-29 Nguyen Lam, Phuc Dong Ward, Long Bien District, with Ms. Nguyen Thi Nhung as the owner. The total number of children at the facility is 35, the total number of teachers with pedagogical qualifications is 5.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/quang-cao-truong-mam-non-quoc-te-my-nhung-5-lan-hua-suong-tra-luong-giao-vien-20241203003002404.htm