It has is a 4-storey building with total usable area of 2,000 square meters and a 400 square meter school yard. The school is located in a populous residential area with high intellectual standards, high income, many children, good transport conditions, and high security level.

However, the school has only 30 students, and the students are staying off school because of the epidemic. While the revenue is zero, the school still has to pay more than VND100 million a month in rent.

The owner of another preschool with 70 students in Dong Da district also has to sell the school after failing to maintain its operation. He cannot arrange enough money to pay the rent of VND33 million for the 4-story building (total usable area of 450 square meters) and cover other expenses.

Unsure about the future of the school, the owner of a nursery school in Cau Giay district in Hanoi has decided to sell the school and liquidate teaching aids.

Pham Mai Chi, headmaster of a preschool in Tay Ho district, said her school can exist because she doesn’t have to pay rent. However, the school has had no revenue for the last two months.

The Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) reported that there are 15,700 private preschools and household-run classes. These are small scale facilities with fewer than 70 students.

The owners of the schools are small investors with limited financial capability. They are vulnerable to any upheaval in society.

According to MOET’s Deputy Minister Pham Ngoc Thuong, Covid-19 has had a strong impact on the education sector and especially private schools.

The schools have to pay at least a total amount of VND400 billion a month to 103,863 managerial officers and teachers, if referring to the regional minimum wage. The rent for 3,702 privately owned education establishments, from preschool to university, is total VND450-500 billion.

They also have to pay for detoxification, disinfection and epidemic prevention activities and other expenses

Nguyen Ba Minh, director of the Preschool Education Department, warned that if private schools don’t have the capability to retain their staff, Vietnam will lack teachers for the post-epidemic period and face a human resources crisis.

He said MOET has asked the government to apply measures to help private preschools stabilize their staff. One of the proposed solutions is the zero percent credit package to be disbursed for private education establishments.

The government has approved the aid package for subjects affected by the epidemic. Private school teachers are also beneficiaries. 

Mai Chi

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