In Vietnam, parents who want teachers to pay more attention to their children pay extra money to kindergarten teachers monthly. And when parents don’t abide by the unwritten rules of this “envelope culture,” kids can suffer.
“Hoang Thi Yen in district 8, HCM City, said she has to give VND200,000 [about 12 U.S. dollars] a month to both of her daughter’s two teachers for a ‘present’” VietNamNet reports. “Yen said that all the parents she knows also give extra money to teachers. Yen is afraid that the teachers will not take care of her child if she doesn’t do this.”
Another parent reports that when she picks up her daughter from school and is not given a warm welcome, she understands that it’s time to give an envelope to the teachers. “Teachers change their attitude towards me and my child if I’m slow in giving money.” Two months ago, says this parent, she was having difficulty persuading her son to go to kindergarten. Her son said he did not want to go to class. However, after she gave envelopes to teachers, her son all of a sudden liked going to school. “The teachers’ attitudes make me feel that they just want money, while they don’t care for children,” she said.
Sometime the limits we place on “the market” and on “incentives” make sense. I think public schools (and teachers unions) are often criticized for an over emphasis on fairness and equal treatment, but there are reasons to care about those things.