For athletes, professional training is a guarantee for their constant attachment to sports after they say goodbye to elite sports. However, study is a hard road.

Nguyen Hoai Thu, a member of the national Taekwondo team.

The hardness seems to rise owing to the latest regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training on the “fine” imposed on students who miss exams or fail exams. The fine for each teaching period of the subject that students miss or fail is VND 50,000, totaling approximately VND 4.5 million ($265)/subject. The fine is really ‘terrible’ for any student, particularly sportsman-students, who have to play sports and study.

Recently, Nguyen Hoai Thu, a member of the national Taekwondo team, participated in the Olympics 2008 and had to pay fines worth VND 4.5 million for the time she quit study for playing sports.

Many other athletes who are studying at the Sports University fall into this situation. Their salary and bonus is not enough to pay the fines at school. It is said that only footballers have abundant bonuses to pay the fines.

However, it is unfair that only athletes who study in classes outside the National Sports Centers have to pay fines. Those who study in classes located inside sports centers in Hanoi, HCM City and Da Nang do not have to pay anything other than school fees. But not all national sportsmen can follow training courses in these centers to enjoy this policy.

Sportsmen have proposed to have the same policy for all members of national football squads despite the place where they study.

(Source: TT&VH)