HÀ NỘI – The Ministry of Education and Training (MoET) conducted a surprise inspection of the educational establishments in four cities and provinces to review the collection of tuition fees this academic year.

The inspection was conducted after the government received public feedback on the exorbitant school fees in some schools in Hà Nội and Hải Phòng cities, and Hà Tĩnh and Nghệ An central provinces.

Many parents had complained that the fees were extremely high in many schools across the country.

They reported to the media that some elementary schools imposed a fee of VNĐ9 million or VNĐ16 million (US$400 or $711) per student a year.

Tống Duy Hiến, deputy chief of the ministry’s inspection agency, said that the inspection teams had found that some schools collected various other fees, which were not prescribed by the prevailing regulations.

Many fees that were collected following the agreement between schools and parents were also not in accordance with regulations, he said.

Owing to such irregularities, the education inspectors urged the schools to immediately stop collecting non-prescribed fees and repay the parents the unregulated fees.

The Department of Education and Training and the People’s Committee in the localities of the schools would be required to make timely inspection of all the local educational establishments and strictly handle any violations.

To completely solve the problem of excessive collection of school fees at the beginning of the school year, it would need to join hands with the localities, parents and teachers, Hiến said.

The ministry would also review and amend the circular and documents related to the collection of school fees to ensure consistency, he said.  – VNS