The Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on the National Governance of Arbitrary Collection of Fees in Education reported on the investigation and handling of 6 typical problems of illegal collection of fees in schools

CCTV News: According to the website of the Ministry of Education, in order to seriously investigate and deal with the behavior of indiscriminate collection of fees in education that harm the interests of the masses and continue to consolidate the results of the management of arbitrary fees in education, the Office of the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference on the National Governance of Arbitrary Charges in Education recently issued the "Circular on the Investigation and Handling of 6 Typical Problems of Illegal School Charges", which reported on the investigation and handling of 6 cases of typical problems of illegal charges in schools, and put forward clear requirements for related work.

The "Circular" pointed out that the education administrative departments of six provinces of Sichuan, Hebei, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning and Guizhou have verified and dealt with the problem of illegal school fees. The first is the problem of illegal charges for forced students to buy tablet computers at Liushu Middle School in Shehong City, Sichuan Province. Since September 2018, Willow Middle School has a total of 12 classes and 566 students participating in "flat teaching". The school requires students to purchase the "Ruiyi Cloud Teaching System" APP, and a total of 5998 yuan is charged per student for three years. The school violated the requirement that "students and parents may not be forced or implied to purchase designated teaching aids or materials." At present, the school has fully refunded the fees charged in violation of the rules. The Shehong Municipal Commission for Discipline Inspection gave the main responsible person of Liushu Middle School a serious warning within the party, and gave the person in charge of the Education and Sports Bureau a warning within the party; the Shehong Municipal Supervision Commission gave the person in charge of the Education and Sports Bureau an excessive punishment. The second is the problem of illegal fees charged by Heyang Hengshui No. 1 Middle and Senior High School and Heyang Wai Chinese Middle School in Baoding City, Hebei Province. In 2021, Heyang Hengshui No.1 Middle and Senior High School and Heyang Foreign Chinese School, a subsidiary of Baoding Heyang Education Investment Co., Ltd., illegally collected tuition and accommodation fees across semesters and exceeded the standard, and illegally collected public property deposit fees, military training clothing fees, insurance fees, physical examination fees, and teaching and auxiliary material fees totaling 52.5538 million yuan. The above-mentioned schools have violated the provisions that "tuition and accommodation fees shall not be collected in advance across academic years or semesters, schools shall not set up service charges and collection items without authorization, and students and parents shall not be forced or implied to purchase designated teaching and auxiliary software or materials". At present, the two schools have refunded all the fees collected in violation of the rules. The Baoding Lianchi District Market Supervision Bureau gave Heyang Hengshui No. 1 Middle and Senior High School an administrative penalty of 850,000 yuan; the Baoding Municipal Education Bureau and the Baoding Lianchi District Education and Sports Bureau respectively reduced the 2022 enrollment plan of Heyang Hengshui No. 1 Middle and Senior High School and Heyang Foreign Chinese School, determined that the two schools failed the annual inspection in 2021-2022, and reported criticism. The third is the problem of illegal collection of drinking water fees by the experimental primary school in Le'an County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province. In March 2021, Le'an County Experimental Primary School charged 2,940 students 88,200 yuan for drinking water. The school violated the provision that "the school shall not set up service charges and collection items without authorization". At present, the school has fully refunded the fees charged in violation of the rules. The Le'an County Supervisory Commission gave the main person in charge of the Le'an County Experimental Primary School an administrative warning. Fourth, some schools and internship units in Jilin Province illegally charge internship fees to students. In 2020, Jilin Health School, Liaoyuan Vocational and Technical College, Changchun Medical College, Changchun Oriental Vocational College and other schools and internship units in Jilin Province illegally charged 259,300 yuan in internship fees to 239 students. The above schools violated the provisions of "schools shall not set up service charges and collection items without authorization". At present, the above schools have refunded all the internship fees collected in violation of the rules to the students. Fifth, the New Century Experimental School in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, carried out illegal charges for summer custody services. In August 2021, the New Century Experimental School in Anshan City, Liaoning Province, illegally opened a summer custody class, and illegally collected 198 student fees (including custody fees, car fees, and meal fees), totaling 146,000 yuan. The school violated the provision that "the school shall not set up service charges and collection items without authorization". At present, the school has refunded all the fees collected in violation of the rules to the students. The Anshan Municipal Education Bureau approved the enrollment plan of the New Century Experimental School; the party committee of the school gave a serious warning punishment to the relevant responsible persons within the party; and the school dismissed the relevant teachers in the junior high school. The sixth is the problem of illegal charges for interest classes in Amber Kindergarten in Huaxi District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province. In September 2020, Amber Kindergarten in Huaxi District, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, opened an interest class and illegally charged interest class fees to 302 parents of young children, totaling 528,500 yuan. The school violated the provision that "the school shall not set up service charges and collection items without authorization". At present, the school has refunded all the fees collected in violation of the rules to the parents of the students. The Huaxi District Education Bureau dismissed the person in charge of the basic education section of the bureau and dismissed the relevant person in charge of Amber Kindergarten.

The "Circular" emphasizes that local education administrative departments and all types of schools at all levels should learn lessons from the above typical problems, further strengthen and standardize the management of education fees, continue to consolidate the results of curbing arbitrary collection of fees in education, and improve the ability to manage education fees.

The first is the responsibility for compaction work. All localities should attach great importance to the management of education fees, establish and improve the leadership system, improve the mechanism of joint meetings, the mechanism of supervision and investigation, and the mechanism of pursuing responsibility, bring the management of education fees into the scope of education supervision, and systematically promote the management of education fees. The second is to strengthen policy publicity. All localities should innovate publicity methods, strengthen the publicity and interpretation of education fee policies, and promote the implementation of education fee policies at all levels and in all types of schools. The third is to increase the intensity of investigation and punishment. With regard to problems that the masses of the people have strongly complained about, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive mapping and key verification, establish a problem ledger, formulate a rectification and reform plan, and promote the rectification and reform of the problems in place; it is necessary to increase the intensity of reporting, seriously investigate the responsibility of relevant personnel, and earnestly maintain the high-pressure situation of arbitrarily collecting fees for rectification and education.

Source: CCTV