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Elaine Wu

New ruling seen as legitimising arbitrary fees

Schools will have to start paying a business tax on arbitrary fees collected from parents, says a State Administration of Taxation notice.   Some  are calling  the move  an attempt to legitimise the charges.

The  policy will affect all government-licensed schools,  Xinhua reported yesterday.

The taxable fees are the so-called 'sponsorship' and 'school by choice', or pre-enrolment, payments  schools charge  to bring in extra revenue.

Fees for tuition, books, dormitories and food  are exempt from the business tax. But any amount collected that is more than the standard rate will also be taxable.

The Xinhua report did not give reasons for the new tax.

Pre-enrolment and sponsorship payments may amount to  tens of thousands of  yuan,  and have left many families  in debt and led to some children to commit suicide to ease  their parents' burden.

The fees have been a contentious issue  as they bar poorer parents from sending their children to better schools. This has created an unfair situation even with the 'one-fee' policy in place - a measure aimed at ensuring all schools charge the same rate.

Some educators are questioning whether the government is legitimising these arbitrary fees and turning schools into business enterprises by implementing the  policy.

Tao Hongkai , director of the quality education research centre at Huazhong Normal University in Wuhan , said the new tax would not solve the problem.

'This encourages schools to make more money from people,' he said. 'The government should give money to education, not take money from education.

'I don't think they should regard schools as enterprises. Schooling is for  society, not for making money. The main duty for schools is to teach the next generation to be  better people. Now, it has become a money-making machine.'

A Hebei teacher, Zhang Hongrui , wrote in an opinion piece that, on the surface, the tax policy seemed like a win-win  situation. The government will collect taxes, the schools can keep the money and education officials will be able to answer to the central government.  But in the end, parents will continue to suffer.

Mr Tao said the problem with the education system was that there were not enough good teachers and schools.

The mainland's large population and the one-child policy has further exacerbated the situation. Schools can charge exorbitant fees because parents with one child are willing to pay more money for the good schools.

It has been known for teachers to receive 'grey income' through sponsorship and supplementary fees.

It was not unheard of for high-school teachers to receive bonuses of 30,000 yuan for each student from their class that  were accepted into the prestigious Peking or Tsinghua universities, Mr Tao said.

'There are so few good universities and good high schools. It's very hard to solve this problem,' he said.

'All the kids want to  get into the best universities, but the reality is that resources are so limited.'



Critics question tax on schools'  extra charges