VietNamNet Bridge – Well-off Vietnamese families are willing to pay several billions of dong a month, a sum high enough to buy 200 tons of rice, to fund their children’s overseas studies.

Tran Viet Minh, a student in Russia.

Studying overseas, in the view of many Vietnamese parents, is the best solution for ensuring a bright future for their children.

In that spirit, Dinh Huong, 48, of HCM City, has sent both of her children to prestigious schools abroad. Her daughter is in Singapore, while her son studies in Melbourne, Australia.

While Huong feels secure about her daughter, she always worries about the son.

The boy was a student of an international school in Vietnam, which required a high tuition of $2,000 a month. Right after finishing high school, he enrolled in one of the most prominent schools in Australia.

In the land of the down under, the boy lives in a rented house with good conditions for which Huong has to shell out $2,000 a month. She knew that there were other boarding houses available in Melbourne with lower rents, but she chose the house because it was near the central area and the school. Meanwhile, the tuition is very high –  $36,000 per annum, which is as twice as much as other similar schools.

Besides the house rent, tuition and daily expenses, Huong has also had to spend money on the air fare for her regular flights to Australia.

As she feels insecure about the son’s study, she flies to Australia every few months to watch over him. She frets that the foreign food is not good for him, or that he does not have time to cook when preparing for exams.

Song Hong, a parent in Hanoi, confirmed that it is very costly to fund her children’s overseas studies.

It costs Hong VND1 billion, or 200 tons of rice, to fund her son’s study in the UK. Her 16-year-old daughter has just left Vietnam for the UK. She is now a student of Bellerbys College, a very well-known school in the country.

Hong feels happy because the girl can now be independent. She has obtained a 40 percent scholarship and plans to find part-time jobs to earn money. Consequently, Hong only has to pay VND200 million a month for her daughter’s study.

All this is in striking contrast with per capita income in Vietnam, which is about $1,960 per year. And a high income earner in this country is considered to be anyone making over VND10 million a month, or $500.

Though her daughter has grown up and become independent in adapting to the new schooling circumstances, Hong still worries about her. She believes that girls always need their mothers’ care and that her daughter still needs her advice.

“If your children study overseas, you should care for them meticulously,” she said.

“Some parents think they just have to remit money to their children on schedule, while they do not care how the children live and learn,” she said. “This is a blunder”.

Meanwhile, the spending of VND1 billion a month on study proves to be <fabulous | ludicrous | outlandish> in the eyes of many Vietnamese.

“This is really an unprofitable investment,” Dung, a parent, said. “You would end up spending VND50 billion to fund your child’s 4-year study overseas. And your child would need to find a good job which can bring a monthly income of at least VND100 million a month to recover the investment capital,” she said.

GD & XH