7 Ways to Scam Money Out of Parents' Wallets
Ukrainian teachers' salaries are among the lowest in the world—on average, they earn $100 per month or $1,2 per year. By comparison, according to an OECD report, teachers with 10 years of experience working in lower secondary schools in Luxembourg earn $99,9 per year. Teachers of similar qualifications in Germany earn approximately $65,8, in the US $53,8, and in the UK $45,6. Officials from the Ukrainian Ministry of Education and Science are at a loss—the state allocates too little money. "Education costs cover nothing but utilities and salaries," Deputy Minister of Education and Science Pavlo Khobzey told DS. In the 2016 state budget, the education subvention to local budgets, which actually funds schools, amounts to only 44,8 billion hryvnias. Therefore, the blatant hunt for parents' money continues, and appetites are growing. DS investigated what you have to pay for in “free” schools.
School funds and renovation of premises
Every educational institution regularly collects contributions from students' parents for the school fund and for the class fund. These amounts vary by location (in regional centers, contributions are higher, in other cities, they are lower), but on average, they amount to 30-40 UAH per month for the school and 15-20 UAH per month for the class fund.
Every year, funds must also be donated for renovations, equipment, and furniture—an average of 300 hryvnias. This means that parents of each student contribute almost 1 hryvnias to the school annually (of course, in large cities, this amount can be several times higher). According to the Ministry of Education, nearly 3,8 million students attend general education institutions. This means that budget funding is supplemented by parental contributions—by the most conservative estimates, 3,8 billion hryvnias annually. "The manipulation is based on the students—parents worry whether refusing to contribute will affect teachers' attitudes toward their children. After all, university funding is only slightly better than that of schools, but students aren't forced to chip in for classroom renovations and plasma TVs, because, unlike children, they can fend for themselves," Oleksandr Gulyayev, chairman of the board of the public organization "Public Safety and Development," told DS.
One-time contributions and donations for gifts
But that's far from all that caring parents have to pay. There are fees for admission to educational institutions (in regional centers, this amount ranges from 500 UAH to 6 UAH), and money is collected for gifts for teachers, head teachers, and principals on holidays, for security, and so on. However, in most cases, parents have no way of tracking how exactly these funds are spent. "One of our problems is that all these so-called 'shadow' educational funds are not accounted for anywhere," says Liliya Hrynevych, chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Science and Education. (more about it in the article Liliya Grinevich: The Story of an Illiterate but Armed Minister).
"Cultural" extortions
There are numerous other schemes for profiting from students' parents. One such scheme involves voluntary/compulsory cultural outings to theaters, museums, cinemas, and the like. Representatives of museums, theater agencies, and production centers initiate this cultural engagement for schoolchildren. They approach the city education department with a proposal for cooperation. Distribution companies take 10-30% of the ticket price, promising a portion of this sum to the city education department leadership to ensure "bulk" purchases. Encouraged by the opportunity to profit from virtually nothing, city education officials submit ticket sales quotas to district education departments, which then distribute the tickets to schools. The school administration then divides the tickets among classes and tells teachers the amount they must collect from parents. Otherwise, according to teachers, they are forced to pay extra for the tickets out of their own pockets. Otherwise, you can expect trouble from the director, who has to take this money to the district education department.
If every Ukrainian schoolchild was forced to buy at least one ticket during the winter holidays, the intermediaries earned 20-30 million hryvnias, part of which went to education officials.
So, if 30 students in a class buy tickets to a performance at 50 hryvnias each, then of the 1,5 hryvnias contributed by parents, approximately 400 hryvnias will be "distributed" among the participants in the ticket distribution scheme. So, if every Ukrainian schoolchild was forced to buy at least one ticket during the winter holidays, the intermediaries earned 20-30 million hryvnias, some of which went to education officials. "Selling tickets in schools is very profitable—there's no need to spend money on advertising or worry about declining sales. Parents will donate the money anyway," Yuriy Lagutov, head of the Inter-Akciya Public Development Center, told DS. Many parents, unwilling to enter into conflict with teachers or school administration, were forced to purchase tickets to several New Year's performances and shows, spending 200-300 hryvnias each. "Performances or master classes are often held during school hours, instead of classes. The idea is that children should be at school at that time, meaning they won't be able to skip this cultural event. So tickets are sold wholesale, sometimes to downright shoddy performances," says Yuri Lagutov.
Sale of notebooks and textbooks
While education officials make money off tickets, teachers and school administrators use other methods to extract money from parents. Many teachers require the purchase of workbooks, notebooks for midterm and final assessments (with independent and quizzes), problem sets, and so on. Some enterprising teachers make a good living by purchasing this "waste paper," collaborating with publishers or intermediaries. Students hand over money to the teacher, who promises to deliver everything they need directly to the school at the same price as at the market or store. However, if you buy more than 10 items, at book markets, for example, you can get a discount of up to 20%. And if you work directly with the publisher and buy notebooks in bulk, the discount can reach almost 50%.
Teachers are also selling textbooks. For example, at the beginning of this school year, when free textbooks for fourth- and seventh-grade students hadn't yet arrived, teachers persistently pressured parents to buy them at their own expense. Sets were sold for 200-400 hryvnias. "This is all the arbitrary actions of individual principals. I'm sure commercial publishers approached them and offered to sell them the new textbooks for a fee," says Yuriy Shukevich, head of the Kyiv Schools Association and a member of the public council under the Ministry of Education.
Additional classes and clubs
Another opportunity to earn money is through extracurricular activities. Parents often pay for extracurricular activities as a package deal, some of which exist only on paper, although their directors are regularly paid. Sometimes, these extracurricular activities are held during a state-funded lesson. For example, paid choreography or sambo classes are held during a physical education lesson. In such cases, the physical education teacher receives a salary for a lesson they didn't teach. Naturally, this is done under the close scrutiny of the school administration.
Compulsory tutoring
Some resourceful teachers actively offer their services as tutors on a "voluntary-compulsory" basis, donating a portion of their earnings to the school's administration. Tutoring is very popular during school admissions: a member of the admissions committee announces that the child failed the interview, but will be accepted if they tutor with a specific teacher. A similar practice flourishes during the school year. For a period, the student receives poor grades, no matter how hard they prepare for lessons. Then the teacher tells the parents that the child needs additional tutoring, and the child is willing to do so. Eventually, a group of four or five children is formed, each paying 50-100 hryvnias for the extra lesson. Tutors' kickbacks to the administration can reach up to 40% of their earnings.
Image "little things"
Schools also have other traps for parents' wallets. For example, patches on jackets with the school logo, custom-made diaries, badges, and student ID cards, for which parents are required to pay. Some lyceums and gymnasiums require parents to pay for "branded" uniforms for students, which they order from a specific manufacturer. And even if parents don't like the quality of the fabric, the tailoring, or the price of the suit (1,5-2 hryvnias and up), they have no choice but to buy it.
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