The hidden reasons of the Vietnamese parents for paying private tuition fees for public school teachers

Abstract

Abstract This article investigates the Vietnamese parents’ hidden reasons for paying private tutoring fees for public school teachers. The authors conducted qualitative research on seventy-two parents of grade 1 to 12 tutees in three urban and three rural areas in Vietnam. The findings show that: First, the participants are willing to pay private tuition fees for public school teachers because they strongly trust in public school teaching quality, teacher reputations, school locations, and the importance of tutoring subjects for their children. Next, parents believe that private tutoring taught by public school teachers would be advantageous for their children’s future exams because these teachers could be able to deliver the examinable knowledge in advance for their children and consider private tutoring fees as safety net fees for their children. Finally, parents perceive the inflation of private tuition fee rates of public school teachers as the fees are the main source of public school teachers’ incomes because these are always higher than public school fees many times; therefore public school teachers have strong motivations to continue providing private tutoring services for charging high fee rates and ignoring its regulations. Three important issues of the hidden reasons are critically discussed, including (i) strong parental trusts for the public schooling system; (ii) private tutoring fees are easily switched to hidden briberies in education; and (iii) undeniable parental evidence of private tutoring fees as the main source of incomes of public school teachers. The research limitation in the study is also mentioned.