Calling for 1.2 billion VND in sponsorship for the school year, what does the school say?

(Dan Tri) - Le Quy Don High School (Xuan Hoa Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) plans to mobilize more than 1.2 billion in funding for the 2025-2026 school year, even though it has collected money to implement an advanced, integrated model.

Le Quy Don High School currently has about 1,450 students studying with modern facilities, located in the city center. In addition to the basic tuition fee as prescribed (waived from this school year), students studying in the high-quality model pay an additional 1,725,000 VND/month, collected for 9 months.

However, according to the public announcement, this school year, the school mobilized more than 1.2 billion VND for two major categories: supporting students' learning activities with an expected mobilization of more than 1 billion VND and supporting student movements, unions, cultural and sports activities, festivals, and events with nearly 200 million VND.

Some parents and readers expressed concern about why advanced schools need more advocacy.

"I wonder why the school, which already has an advanced and integrated model of revenue, still mobilizes more than 1 billion VND from social sources," a reader sent a complaint to Dan Tri .

Le Quy Don High School, Xuan Hoa Ward, HCMC (Photo: Truong Truong).

Responding to this issue, Ms. Bui Minh Tam, Principal of Le Quy Don High School, confirmed that on September 17, the Department of Education and Training approved the school's fundraising plan for the 2025-2026 school year with a total amount of more than 1.2 billion VND.

Explaining the need for this fund, Ms. Tam said that because of the high-quality, advanced, and integrated program model, students' learning programs and training activities take place continuously.

The expected amount of funds will be used for advanced activities, beyond the basic operating costs of the school, including: Rewards for students (on behalf of parents to reward and encourage students), activities according to the needs of 21 clubs, camping activities, festivals, activities to support students participating in competitions, coming-of-age ceremonies for grade 12 students, etc.

Regarding the plan to mobilize more than 1.2 billion VND in funding, which only has two major items, Ms. Tam said that this is a public form according to the regulations of the management agency, so the school follows that form.

She further explained that to ensure transparency and detailed information, the leadership of Le Quy Don High School sent a specific plan via a link to the entire parent-teacher association so that they could fully disseminate it to parents.

The school leaders also clarified the difference between the plan and the actual mobilization. The principal said: "That's the plan, but in reality, we cannot mobilize all of it. The school organizes as much as it can mobilize and divides it into stages, not all at once. There are public reports and close monitoring."

As evidence for this, she said that in the 2024 school year, the plan to mobilize social resources was proposed to be 1.4 billion VND in cash, but in reality, the school only received more than 760 million VND.

Ms. Tam also affirmed that for many years, the school has not collected funds from parents, only mobilized funding projects with the approval of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City to ensure the principles of voluntariness, publicity, transparency, and no coercion.

A club activity of Le Quy Don High School students (Photo: Huyen Nguyen).

The school's public report on the use of funding for the 2024-2025 school year shows that the total approved budget estimate is VND1,959 billion, including two projects.

Project 1 is to renovate the self-study area, the school received in kind 550 million VND. For project 2, the initial mobilization level was 1.4 billion VND to support educational activities, however, the school mobilized 55% of the plan (nearly 765 million VND in cash).

With this cash of nearly 765 million VND, the school spent nearly 762 million VND on activities such as: gifts for students with good achievements (nearly 350 million VND), support activities for clubs (more than 125 million VND), and more than 280 million VND on other support activities such as camps, festivals, and school-level science and technology competitions.

Ms. Tam affirmed that the mobilization of school funding projects must be carried out in accordance with the guiding documents. All mobilization funds must be made on the basis of consensus, not coercion, and can only be used to support educational activities and improve the quality of teaching and learning outside of the State's regular expenditure budget.

“The disclosure of the purpose, beneficiaries and detailed reporting of resource use is not only a mandatory requirement, but also a commitment of Le Quy Don High School,” Ms. Bui Minh Tam affirmed.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/keu-goi-van-dong-tai-tro-12-ty-dong-cho-nam-hoc-nha-truong-noi-gi-20251021071458430.htm