At the beginning of each school year, the role of the Parent-Teacher Association always becomes a hot topic, attracting the attention of many parents and teachers. Does the Parent-Teacher Association truly represent the voice of parents and fulfill its role and duties?

The Forum on the Role of Parents' Representatives in Schools, organized by the Education section of VietNamNet, hopes to hear opinions, shares and contributions from parents, teachers and those who are interested in the country's education system to build practical solutions for this problem.

The article below is the opinion of a parent in Hanoi shared with the forum.

At the beginning of the new school year, my child’s class held a parent-teacher meeting. Before that, the homeroom teacher asked the parents to elect a president, but no one ran. Because last year, I stood up to support the class with a few hundred thousand to repair equipment, so this year, when no one agreed to do it, the teacher encouraged me, “Mom, try to support the class.” After the teacher’s persuasion, I reluctantly accepted this task.

On the day of the parent-teacher conference, after reaching an agreement, we decided to contribute 1,000,000 VND/term, of which 200,000 VND will be allocated to the school fund. This amount will mainly be used for common activities of the class such as buying hand sanitizer, washing blankets and pillows periodically, organizing group activities, and parties on June 1, Mid-Autumn Festival and Lunar New Year.

With 800,000 class fund, it sounds like a lot but in reality if divided among the above activities, each task is only a few tens of thousands, or even a few thousand per child.

However, among the 40 students in the class, there were some parents who were determined not to contribute for various reasons. As the head of the parents’ committee, I had to go around and beg each parent to contribute to the class fund in full, even using my own money to contribute so that the children would not suffer.

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Illustration photo: Unsplash.com

In early September, Typhoon Yagi caused trees to fall down in the school and the roof of the medical room was blown off. The school construction fund was not enough to overcome these problems. Although the school did not call for support, the parents' association launched support classes to help the school rebuild and stabilize teaching and learning soon.

While other classes called on parents to voluntarily support me personally, I proactively proposed to withdraw 500,000 VND from the class fund. When I proposed, no one objected. However, just a few days later, a parent in the class wrote an anonymous letter, demanding to sue the school because they thought that "the parent committee is an extension of the school", although in reality the school was not involved in this matter. Because I was so frustrated, I burst into tears and decided to withdraw my personal money to return to the fund.

In fact, there were many times when we had to pay out of our own pocket to make up for the fund. When we went shopping to prepare parties for our children or when we bought gifts or visited them, if we were short a few tens of thousands, I would pay out of my own pocket to buy more so that our children could have a complete joy. Or when some parents did not contribute to the fund, if we kept reminding them, they would feel embarrassed, so the president and vice president had to divide the money to make up for it.

Many people say that the PTA will definitely embezzle the class fund. But anyone who has worked in the PTA will see that the whole year the class has enough expenses. The PTA usually has to be very careful to make ends meet and cannot spend lavishly like many people think.

During the recent Mid-Autumn Festival, I encountered this awkward situation. To organize a party for the children, the parents discussed ordering fast food such as pizza, fried chicken, french fries... from a store near the school.

After the party, when the teacher posted pictures of the children enjoying the Mid-Autumn Festival feast on the class group, some parents "suggested" that the board of directors should buy food from big brands next time to ensure hygiene. Moreover, these restaurants will also have clear invoices and prices, so if the children accidentally eat something, it will be easy to... sue. More harshly, one parent also asked, these expenses all have discounts, so where did those expenses go? They thought that the parent committee had some personal gain from buying food for the children.

Having been in this “oh my god” situation a few times, I felt really frustrated. Sometimes, I also wanted to quit because of my busy personal work, but in reality, I wanted to quit so that I wouldn’t have to waste my time, money and get such a bad reputation.

I think that is easier said than done. Parents should not stand on the sidelines and look in with judgmental, hostile eyes. Those who dare to take on this responsibility are almost all enthusiastic, energetic, responsible, and dedicated to students and general educational activities. They also have to sacrifice personal work for the common work of the school and the class, but few people understand. For that reason, few people want to take on this task.

Reader Vu Thuy (Hanoi)

Pressure from rich people 'manipulating' the class parent committee At the first parent meeting of the school year, I sat next to a lady who looked quite rich. When the teacher suggested setting up a scholarship fund to reward children every month, calling on each parent to contribute 50,000-100,000 VND/term, she shouted "pay 200,000 VND for comfort" and handed over the money.