Although teacher Truong Phuong Hanh - a teacher at Chuong Duong Primary School, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City - explained that she thought asking parents for support was to socialize education, buy laptops to serve the teaching of their own children..., it still cannot be called "normal". Asking for money from others, for whatever reason, is already abnormal.
A teacher with 30 years of experience in the classroom cannot have such a naive and "simple" way of thinking about the concept of "socialization of education".
Socializing education is not simply a matter of mobilizing parents to contribute when there is a lack of money. In fact, for quite a long time, many educational managers have deliberately misunderstood and misapplied the policy of socialization. This has turned a very meaningful policy, aiming to mobilize the joint efforts of the whole society to care for education, into a campaign to mobilize parents' contributions in many different forms, through the extended arm established by the school itself: the Parents' Representative Board.
The situation of overcharging has been complained about for many years but still cannot be stopped, when many schools know how to exploit the "sensitive" aspect in the relationship between them and parents. Because it is "sensitive", few parents dare to speak out, even though they feel uncomfortable. "Voluntary" campaigns are quietly implemented, from buying televisions, air conditioners, projectors, printers... to building garages or hallways, buying decorative plants. Some places even "socialize" the buying of gifts, organizing tours, picnics... for teachers.
All blame is placed on the Parents' Association, if anything happens.
This situation has existed for a long time, the education sector has called for correction many times but then everything goes back to the way it was. To the point that people consider it obvious, like the way a teacher asks parents for money to buy a computer and says it is "normal".
The amount of 6 million VND that Ms. Hanh wanted to ask for was not really that big, but it was an abuse of other people's favor and no one agreed with that way of doing things.
Parents requested to change the homeroom teacher and transfer students to another class because they felt uneasy entrusting their children to a teacher whose character and speech were questionable, not necessarily because she was "sulking" and did not prepare a review outline.
During this school year, many teachers in mountainous and remote areas have to travel to each village to persuade parents to send their children to school. The teachers’ love for their profession and children has touched and awakened the desire to change the lives of poor families in rural and mountainous areas. Even though their meals are not enough and their clothes are still in tatters, parents still try to wade through streams and climb mountains to bring their children to school, hoping to learn to read and write so that their future lives will be less miserable.
So, do the poor workers and laborers who have to work hard to make a living in Cau Kho Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City not have the right to be treated equally like other fathers and mothers? So even though teacher Hanh considers herself "straightforward" and has the right to "associate with educated people", no one allows her to consider the parents of her students as "street parents".
A teacher, with the view of parents as "the whole population is uneducated, eats one way and talks another, turns their backs on each other like rice paper...", how is he qualified to talk about "socializing education" here?
Another thing is that I don't know how far it is from Ms. Hanh's house to Chuong Duong school, but it's hard to call it a remote area, separated by a ferry. So why did she use the excuse of leaving early and not having time to eat to bring noodles and sausages to cook in class, and even sell them to her students? This is an elementary school, not a private kindergarten or a family kindergarten, so it has such a way of living and studying.
I used to be a teacher, cycling to school more than 10km away from home on slippery roads, over mountains and rivers. But that did not mean that our generation of teachers at that time gave themselves the right to live a dissolute life in front of their students. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the country was still poor, salaries were limited, teachers' lives were still miserable, but we told ourselves not to let the image of teachers be "cheapened" in the eyes of students. Outside of teaching hours, teachers could do many other jobs to make a living, but taking advantage of the food and money of parents and students was taboo. Even when we had to eat at school, we always found a private space for ourselves.
I think that the teaching environment at Chuong Duong Primary School is having problems, and the person responsible is none other than the principal. Because according to her report, eating and selling noodles and sausages happens regularly. In this teacher's fault, the school leadership cannot help but be partly responsible.
In life, any job requires self-respect. In the teaching profession, it is even more necessary. Because, teachers are always expected by society to be “a shining example for students to follow”!
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Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/vu-xin-mua-laptop-loi-cua-co-giao-khong-the-khong-co-phan-cua-lanh-dao-truong-2327946.html
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