VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of state-owned schools operating under the self-balancing finance scheme complain that they have been meeting a lot of difficulties since the scheme was applied.

A lesson at Kien Thiet Secondary School

Ly Van Ru, Rector of Kien Thiet Secondary School in District 3, HCM City, related that last summer, teachers went to markets to hand out leaflets about the school to attract more students. However, the result of the efforts the teachers made over three months was that 94 students were enrolled in 6^th-grade classes at the school, while the school had hoped to enroll 300.

Ru said that this was one of the difficulties the school had been facing since the school applied the self-balancing finance scheme.

Classrooms idle, teachers abundant

While other state-owned schools’ classes are full of students, classes at these self-balancing schools have few students. The problem lies in the fact that though called a state-owned school, the self-balancing schools charge tuition fees of VND90,000 a month, or six times more than the fees set by other state-owned schools.

As Kien Thiet Secondary School in district 3 cannot enroll enough students, it has to find students from other districts, and even from other provinces. However, this does not bring enough students to the school.

The difficulties in enrollment have led to personnel problems. Last year, the school had enough teachers to run 24 classes, but this year, many staffs have become redundant because there are only 18 classes. There are 28 classrooms at Kien Thiet School, but now 10 classrooms are idle.

Phan Sao Nam Secondary School, also located in district 3, is facing the same problem. The school uses four rooms only, while there are six classrooms.

Nguyen Trong Chuc, Head of the Binh Thanh district’s Education and Training Sub-department, said that most state-owned schools which have been applying the self-balancing scheme are in bad condition, including having poor material facilities, so they have been meeting big difficulties in enrolment.

Teachers’ incomes decreasing

The self-balancing schools are allowed to set tuition fees higher than other state-owned schools, but the incomes of the schools’ teachers are much lower.

Some teachers at Kien Thiet school complain that their incomes have decreased by VND400,000 a month as the number of students has decreased by 300 from last school year.

Ru said that the big difficulties have prompted the school many times to ask to turn Kien Thiet School into a purely state-owned school. However, the proposal has not been accepted by the city’s education and training department, because this would put another burden on the city’s budget.

Meanwhile, Le Truong Ky, Head of District 3’s Education Sub-department, said that the model of self-balancing secondary school was unsuitable and should be abolished.

However, Nguyen Van Ngai, Deputy Director of HCM City Education and Training Department, said that the schools which meet difficulties should talk with the department to find solutions, they should not think of turning into purely state-owned schools.

For the time being, teachers at self-balancing schools are struggling hard to get money to support themselves, and none know when the difficulties will be resolved.

(Source: NLD)