VietNamNet Bridge – Since state owned schools provide different education quality, parents have to spend big money in “under-the-table fees” to obtain the seats at prestigious schools for their children. Those, who cannot afford the fees, will have to go to less prestigious schools. As such, there exist the schools for the rich and the schools for the poor.

Thy, an office worker, lives in Go Vap district, which means that in principle, her daughter has to go to the Chi Lang Primary School in the district. However, Thy wants to bring the daughter to the Dinh Tien Hoang in district 1.

She said her office is located in district 1, so it would be better for her to meet and see off the daughter at a school in the same district. However, more importantly, Dinh Tien Hoang is a “star” school where all the parents wish to send their children to.

Thy said she has met someone who committed to help her obtain a seat at Dinh Tien Hoang School for her daughter, if she accepts to “pay underground money.” In fact, the money is not a problem for Thy, a banking officer. However, Thy fears that even if she accepts to pay, her daughter still may not be enrolled in the school.

Thousands of parents in big cities, including Hanoi and HCM City, have been running a race to enroll their children in the “star” schools, though the new academic year would only begin in 5 months.

In HCM City, the targeted schools are Nguyen Binh Khiem, Le Ngoc Han, Dinh Tien Hoang in district 1, Hoang Dieu, Luong The Vinh in Thu Duc district, Chinh Nghia and Bau Sen in district 1.

Dr. Le Ngoc Diep, Head of the Primary Education Division of the HCM City Education and Training Department, said the parents in big cities, many of whom are the high income earners, tend to send their children to the best schools. They want their children to study with the best teachers, learn in the best pedagogical environments and enjoy the best material facilities.

The HCM City People’s Committee has been trying to stop the race for “star” schools by prohibiting the schools to receive students from other districts. However, in fact, students from other districts still can enter the schools through different ways.

In principle, parents have to show to the schools’ management boards the family residential books to show that they enroll to the right schools. However, it seems that the regulation does not help much.

Vo Ngoc Thu, Head of the Education Sub-department in district 5, said that sometimes the sub-department discovered the abnormally high number of the students in the same districts.

The problem was that the parents “played tricks” to register the residences’ addresses in the districts, where there are located the schools they target.

Meanwhile, a teacher of a primary school said that the school cannot refuse the proposal of some parents, who are the big donors of the school, to reserve some seats for their children.

The teacher has noted that the “star” schools, therefore, in many cases, also mean the “schools for the rich,” since the parents are willing to pay big money to enroll their children into the schools.

Meanwhile, the less prestigious schools would be “poor” for every, because the rich parents do not think to give financial support to them.

Tien Phong