VietNamNet Bridge – People-founded schools compare themselves as the state’s “abandoned children,” because unlike state owned schools, they don’t receive any support from the State, even though they also make a great contribution to the country’s education.

Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in Hanoi

Associate Prof Tran Xuan Nhi, Deputy Chair of the Non-state School Association, said the government’s Decree No. 69, when laying down the policy on education socialization, clearly stipulates that non-state and state owned schools have the equal rights for getting land allocated to build schools, access credit and enjoy tax remission. However, the preferences have just been existing on paper.

“The majority of non-state owned schools, from nursery schools to universities, don’t receive any support from the state, from land allocation or credit granting as stipulated in the decree,” Nhi said.

Whether to be able to lease land to build schools, therefore, depend on the “capability” of schools and “the game of chance.”

Nguyen Van Hoa, Headmaster of the Nguyen Binh Khiem High School in Hanoi, related that in 1993, when he and three other investors set up the school, he had to lease a land plot from an individual, signed a land leasing contract with the landlord for 20 years and then built the school.

In 1999, he continued asking the city’s authorities for a land plot for the school campus. Three years later, in October 2002, the school received the decision on the allocation of land plot in Dich Vong Hau hamlet. And Hoa had to wait another year for the site clearance before he could kick off the construction of the school.

Hoa thought he was luckier than many other school developers, because he just needed to wait 10 years to have land.

Setting up a school in early 2000, but only in 2005 did Global Company, the owner of Global school system in Hanoi, get the use right for a land plot in the Yen Hoa new urban area. However, the school still has been delaying its enrolment plan for years because there has been no infrastructure item.

The students of Marie Curie School in Hanoi, which was established 20 years ago, have been learning in rent rooms, because the school’s official campus in Me Tri area would only be ready no sooner than 2014.

Nguyen Xuan Khang, the headmaster of the school, said that he was lucky enough to get land allocated soon, because he received the support from the old students, who are now the high ranking officials of important state agencies.

The abandoned children?

Eight out of the 102 non-state owned schools in Hanoi were forced to stop operation in early 2013. The Hanoi Education and Training Department decided that the schools which cannot meet the requirements in terms of material facilities and teaching staff must stop operation.

A report of the department showed that only 20 percent of non-state owned schools have standard campuses and material facilities, while the others still have been set up on rent premises.

Nguyen Tung Lam, Head of the Hanoi Non-state School Association, said the instability of the school system remains a big challenge. A lot of schools, though having shown their great contribution to the city’s education, still have been on unstable position.

Meanwhile, whether to be able to build school, as said by Nguyen Xuan Khang, depends not only on the determination and the capability of the schools, but also on the luck of the developers.

Tien Phong