11th May 2020 12:45
It seems to be the deciding factor for an unprecedented and endless argument regarding tuition fee between a few parents and "international" schools where their kids are studying at.
From the parents' perspective, many people feel that online studying is not effective yet still cost tuition fee. Thus, many groups of parents from international schools such as Vietnam Australia International School (VAS), Australian International School (AIS), VStar school, Vietnam-Finland International School (VFIS), etc. sent letters calling for help to many relevant authorities such as the Department of Education and Training (DOET) of Ho Chi Minh city and the Ministry of Education and Training.
Assuming their calls unheard, a few parents went to schools during these recent days, publically opposing the tuition fee policy. Mr N.V.T. (District 1, HCM city) calculated in details: his child studies in an international school with a branch in Sala (District 2) online for a total of 38 hours from 3rd February to 8th May.
In-person classes, in reality, would take a total of 402 hours, which means the ratio of online classes versus in-person classes is only 9.5%. "As a result, the school making us pay up to 30% of the tuition fee is unreasonable", MrMr N. concluded.
Using the same formula, another parent converted this into money: "My children's school taught 38 hours of online classes in more than 3 months yet they charged 30% of the previous tuition fee, or 18 million VND in equivalent. So these online classes are nearly 500,000 VND/hour, while I could hire a private home tutor at only 150,000 VND/hour. Teaching online for many students at the same time yet charging each one half a million is really shocking".
A parent expressed an opinion that what they wanted the most is the right and enough calculation: they need to make up for all the off days, or issuing a refund.
According to the head of recruitment of an international school in district 2 (Ho Chi Minh city), what is difficult for our school is in the teachers, even the Principal, who only works according to what is stipulated in the signed contract, if it expires, which usually takes place during mid-June, they will go back to their home country or to a new country to continue their working schedule.
Therefore, this school found it difficult to do make-up classes in summer as requested due to lack of human resources, instead, they would supplement the missing knowledge in the upcoming school days, adding two more weeks after the end of the school year and making up if needed be in the next school year.
Discussing with Tuổi Trẻ newspaper, the Vice Principal of an international school in district 7 (Ho Chi Minh city) informed us that the school's professional team realised that after studying online, the majority of students still improved and achieved the standards of the studying level, yet many parents insisting that their children did not acquire anything.
"The school made a huge investment for online teaching, bought new equipment, designed lesson plans, made more videos, divided the class into smaller teams, increased assisting tutors" - she informed and confirmed to us that the school will not issue refunds for the pandemic time.
A Principal of an international school where the parents came to demand conversations in district 2 shared with Tuổi Trẻ newspaper that it is difficult to meet all the parents' requirements while balancing everything, the school is trying hard to deal with this in the best way possible because besides parents, there are teachers, the cost of investment for teaching, etc. but the most important thing is the children's achievements that are still assured by the school.
It is clear to see that both the parents and the school have their own evaluation on the tuition fee: what is right and enough. The act of studying now is like a good being evaluated differently, which caused disputes: the seller has his own reasons for all the investing efforts for implementation and the making of the product; the buyer is also not wrong when evaluating the product quality low etc.
However, this product is education, so both the parents and the school need to have a constructive approach towards what is "right and enough" for the other side to figure out a way to untangle this knot. Because not only the parents or the schools, the most affected ones are their own children and students.
Comments