[FW: From SCV] INDOCHINA-EDUCATION: Funding Lack Takes Toll on Free Education

[Hai-Tri Le <haitril@microsoft.com>]

INDOCHINA-EDUCATION: Funding Lack Takes Toll on Free Education 

By Yojana Sharma 
HONG KONG, Feb 24 (IPS) - ''The clang of a metal pipe against an old car
wheel resounded across the school yard, signalling the end of morning
classes, but none of the 70 students in Kung Vichet's fourth-grade class
budged from their seats. 

Instead, they put away the notes they had been taking on how magnets
work
and brought out their mathematics notebooks. Private schooling had
begun.''

This description from a World Bank-sponsored Cambodian Government
Education
Sector Review shows the emergence of private tutoring in primary grade
alongside public education. 

Schools in China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos which provided free primary
education under their socialist systems are beginning to levy charges as
they move away from pure socialism, that in some cases the parental
contribution now outweighs that of the state. 

Figures collated by Dr Mark Bray of Hong Kong University for a World
Bank
study ''Counting the Full Cost'', show that in Cambodia where free
primary
education is enshrined in the constitution, a staggering 75 per cent of
the
cost of "free" primary schooling is borne by parents. 

In China, 20-25 per cent of the cost of state-run primary education is
being borne by households. In Laos it is almost 30 per cent, while in
Vietnam, officially a socialist country where at least until recently a
strong emphasis is placed on government provision of education, the
household contribution amounts to about 50 per cent. 

''What it amounts to is privatised public schooling,'' says Bray.
However
in contrast to private schooling, which is also expanding in these
countries, families have no choice. 

''There is a certain weariness, but there is nothing they (parents) can
do.
They must pay or forfeit education altogether,''Bray says. 

In Cambodia students pay their private tutorial fee directly to the
teacher
and ''parents assume that children who do not take part in the shadow
private system are likely candidates to stay in the same grade next
year'',
says the sectoral review. 

''Private tutoring is not, as one might assume, an opportunity for
individual students to get special help on material they did not
understand
in class. Instead it constitutes an extension of the regular curriculum,
offered by the same teacher in the same large group setting, this time
with
a user-fee attached,'' notes the Review. 

Bray says: ''When children are given private tutoring by their regular
teachers an element of blackmail is commonly involved because at least
some
teachers provide only the bare minimum during school hours and reserve
the
real teching for their private classes.'' 

Such policies are not supported by the government but little has been
done
to ease the burden on parents since typically, education spending is
very
low in these countries. 

Education spending in China has been falling, from 3.1 per cent of GNP
ten
years ago to 2.7 per cent by 1989 and 2.4 per cent last year, despite
the
country's stated aim of increasing education spending to 4.0 per cent of
GNP by 2000. 

For the poorest communities the level of ad hoc contributions is leading
directly to high drop out rates which defeat the aims of free access to
education. 

It may also contribute to increased poverty among the poorest in
countries
where primary school was once free, particularly since the poor have
more
children than the rich, according to the World Bank study. 

In Vietnam, which used to boast universal primary school enrollment in
the
very early 1990s, enrollment fell sharply as costs to parents rose, so
that
by 1993 only 78 per cent of 6-10 year-olds were enrolled in primary
schools. 

In China small rural private tutorial schools funded by the community
have
sprung up to teach the poorest children whose parents can no longer
afford
the charges levied in the public schools. 

So high are the ad hoc charges levied by some state-run schools in China
that some private-tutor schools, known as ''sishu'' are able to provide
basic numeracy and literacy at half the cost of normal schooling. 

Bray notes that the development of household contributions to free
public
education is a case of ''market forces salvaging a system,'' which would
otherwise be unable to function. 

In Cambodia, the school system is suffering the effects of abysmal
teacher
pay and a government falling apart and unable to pay for its schools. 

In China and Vietnam the transition from pure socialism to a more
market-oriented system is causing a breakdown in public funding which in
China includes delays of several months in paying teachers in several
provinces. 

In Vietnam where economic stringency led to the introduction of fees for
post-primary schools in 1989, austerity, high inflation and lack of
government revenue has led to funding deficiencies at primary level. 

In China, officially there is no tuition fee until the end of junior
secondary school. However, charges are quite blatant and receipts are
provided. One reciept to a student includes such items as ''desk and
chair
fee'', water and electricity, maintenance of fans, public security,
health
checkup and funds for teacher retirement. 

''Although no tuition fee was demanded, as many as 24 other charges were
made,'' notes Bray. 

China's education minister Zhu Kaixuan said recently ''some institutions
which are supposed to provide free education have asked for fees from
students to raise funds for day-to-day running costs'', but attempts to
clamp down on such practices have been unsuccessful as schools struggle
with minimal funds from the state. 

Vietnamese and Cambodian schools are less upfront about charges but they
include labour and materials in addition to the ubiquitous mass
''private
tutoring'' by the class teacher. 

''And yet,'' says Bray, ''government ministers will still insist
education
is free.'' (END/IPS/AP-ED-DV/YS/RAL/97)