LookAtVietnam Bridge – At 1 am on July 1, tens of parents were seen queuing up in front of Tuong Mai Kindergarten in Hai Ba Trung district in Hanoi. The parents wanted to register their children for the 2008-2009 academic year.

Registering to study at kindergartens

The parents said that they went early in the morning because they feared that latecomers would not be able to register their children.

A woman related that she had to send her child to a kindergarten located in the next ward, a bit far from her home, because she came late last year and she could not register. She said that she had bought the registration from a person for VND500,000.

Tuong Mai is not the only kindergarten that sees parents queuing for registration for children to study there. A security guard at Hoa Hong Kindergarten in Cau Giay district said that he received several calls from parents at 11 pm the day before July 1 asking about the procedures to register their children to study at the kindergarten.

Head of Tuong Mai Kindergarten Vu Thi Tuyet on July 2 said that every day, the kindergarten’s staffs fulfill procedures to receive 30 children.

“As a teacher, I can see problems with the current kindergarten enrolment procedures. As a mother, I feel deep sympathy with parents,” Tuyet said.

She said parents have to queue up at midnight because the operational kindergartens cannot meet the demand. For example, Tuong Mai ward has 400 children of over 3 years old, but the two operational kindergartens in the ward can receive 300 children only.

In fact, parents want to send their children to state-owned schools because of the soft fee of VND200,000 a month, while people-founded schools require much higher fees, 4-5 times higher.

Tuyet said that Tuong Mai Kindergarten has submitted to competent agencies a plan to build six more classrooms with the total space of 300 sq m in order to be able to receive more children. However, the plan has not been approved.

(Source: VNE)