LookAtVietnam Bridge - Education for all is the target that Viet Nam has been trying hard to meet for its younger generations, especially the isolated.

In marginalised parts of the country, farmer parents often have to decide between sending their kids to walk kilometres to the nearest school or keeping them at home to help with the harvest.

But in cities like Ha Noi or HCM City, parents work at more than providing a humble "education for all" – they hunt quality education.

"The quality and facilities that schools in the city provide is not the same as in my time 30 years ago," says Nguyen Van Anh, the urbanite mother of a six-year-old girl.

"There are plenty of options for primary education and I have to choose the one that most meets both my needs and my pocket."

Through consultation with friends whose children already attend school; visiting school websites and joining parenting and chat forums, Van Anh narrowed her choice from a list of international, experimental, public and non-public facilities to four schools.

She then spent a morning visiting the four schools, examining their classrooms, computer rooms, playgrounds and toilets.

"I looked at one of the best public schools in town, but a friend told me that my daughter would not be placed unless I paid a bribe of $1,000," she says.

Education and Training Ministry statistics show that 7,041,000 children were enrolled in more than 14,000 primary schools across the country for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Only 90 of the schools were non-public and these recruited less than an odd number of the students.

Schools are allowed to admit children only from within their administrative precinct and those who attend from "outside" are treated as "off-the-line" students.

"Off-the-line" admittance is considered only when schools do not have enough enrolments and their students have to pay higher fees.

Parent all want to their children to attend "good" schools and as these are reputedly few in Ha Noi, malpractice prevails in the buying of placements.

A woman, who says she spent $500 to get her son placed at a public primary school, explains that she had no choice but to find an appropriate environment for her "very active and stubborn" boy.

The city has a number of schools that have parents beaming with pride as they tell you that their children have managed to get into first grade.

A class in the prestigious schools totals about 60 to 65 pupils. Classes in the so-called second – or third-tier schools - is about half or two thirds that number.

"You’d better start contacting people now to get your child to this school," advised a teacher at one of such schools, who asked to remain anonymous.

Parents who have won placement for their kids in a reputable school are apt to dismiss the payments as "much ado about nothing."

But Van Anh, who refused to pay $1,000 to get her daughter into a prestigious public school, turned to Doan Thi Diem - a private school that has a good reputation for nurturing a child’s individual development and confidence besides meeting the national compulsory curriculum.

"It’ll cost me almost VND3 million ($190) a month but I’d rather spend it for my child than pay a bribe," she says.

"Kids should be able to enjoy a peaceful childhood without having too much pressure from school, from teachers and friends," says Nguyen Thanh Thuy, a mother of a fourth-grader at Doan Thi Diem School.

"We adults know that we should let our kids relax throughout their primary education and learn and play, but when you are in the game, you can’t stop pushing your child," she says.

"My advice? Don’t send your child to schools where the managers and teachers care only about filing sound reports."

The conventional may argue that primary school should be relaxed but Phong Lan, a mother of two and soon-to-be three, thinks the first stage of schooling is the most important.

She spends more than US$200 each month to send her daughter and son to the Little Foot, a private kindergarten on Thai Ha Street.

This academic year, Lan will send her eldest girl to Nguyen Sieu private primary school, where the monthly fee will cost her VND2.5 million ($160).

"I accept that I will have to minimise my personal spending to invest in my kids’ future," she says.

"The first steps in schooling are to help nurture my children’s social attitude and behaviour, not their knowledge, and that’s what I’m most concerned about.

(Source: VNS)