On the afternoon of October 5, at a press conference on socio-economic issues of Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Ho Tan Minh, Chief of Office of the Department of Education and Training (DOET), said that leaders of educational institutions must take responsibility, estimate, and clearly publicize revenues and expenditures so that parents and students can understand clearly.

According to Mr. Minh, the regulations on collecting sponsorships are very clear and educational institutions have been instructed and trained. However, some units have not yet followed the correct procedures, collected excessively, and collected in violation of regulations. The Department has conducted surprise inspections of educational institutions when there are complaints, and the annual inspection plan also includes inspections of this issue.

"The principal must grasp and discuss information related to the parent representative committee of the class and the school to reach a common consensus. There is no concept of class fund or school fund. There cannot be a source of income in the school that the principal does not know about," said Mr. Minh.

Regarding the case of class 1/2 of Hong Ha Primary School collecting and spending money in violation of regulations, Mr. Minh added that upon receiving the information, the Department requested the principal to return the amount of money collected and spent in violation of regulations to the parents.

"Parents must clearly understand the school's revenues and expenditures, and the principal must take responsibility. For educational institutions, after rectification and review, if the head of the unit still makes mistakes, there will be other, higher forms of handling," Mr. Minh emphasized.

On the evening of September 28, after receiving instructions from the Department of Education and Training of Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City, class 1/2 of Hong Ha Primary School held a parent meeting after school hours to clarify the matter of each student paying 10 million VND for the class fund, the spending of nearly 230 million VND to repair the classroom and the refund of the amount spent in violation of regulations. Principal Bui Thi Hai Yen said that the form of payment was to sign and receive on the spot.

Lam Ngoc