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Inspectors from the Ministry of Education and Training have found that many public primary schools in Hanoi have been ignoring the regulations on the collection of fees from students.

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, most primary schools agreed not to open extra classes, but a survey of students showed that many primary schools, such as Lang Thuong, Ngoc Lam, Co Nhue B and Kim Giang continue to offer such classes, especially in literature, English and maths, often lasting until 8pm. Others have made affiliations with private English teaching centres without proper management.

Many such schools have shown to do a bad job of estimating accurate fees, simply asking the parents for money up front, leaving many parents disgruntled.

Many schools have lax management over collection and accounting of fees. Co Nhue B Primary School in Tu Liem District, for example, kept fees in cash in their safe, while Xuan Dinh School allowed teachers to collect and keep the fees. The fees of VND350,000 (USD16.8) per student per year were not properly accounted for.

At Thuong Thanh Primary School in Long Bien District, school officials collected VND20,000 from each student for repairs on the building, and a parents' association which cost another VND300,000 per year, but the school lacks detailed plans on how the money will be spent. They also lacked approval for the collection from the Long Bien Department of Education and Training.

A number of other schools have been found to be in similar violations.

Inspectors of the Ministry of Education and Training asked the local departments of education and training to inspect schools within their jurisdiction. After receiving the results, a punishment system will be proposed to the local people's committees to deal with non-compliant educational facilities.

The Ministry of Education and Training has asked for the results to be sent back by October 30.

The Hanoi Department of Education and Training has said that they will now carry out more frequent inspections of school facilities, excluding nursery, secondary and high schools.