VietNamNet Bridge – The surveys carried out within the framework of the
projects on finance education for students have shown surprising things about
how Vietnamese students spend money, and pointed out that parents still keep
puzzled in managing their children’s spending.
Spending money to show the upper classes in the society
A lot of families complain that they do not have enough time to take care for
their children. A lot of parents decide to make up for this by giving more money
to children, so that they can find amusement activities themselves. The “money
abundance” and the lack of strict management are the main reasons that make a
part of students fall into social evils.
From now to June 2012, the HCM City Education and Training Department, together
with Save the Children, Citi Foundation, will bring the projects on finance
education to the students of 50 high schools in HCM City. The surveys conducted
within the framework of the projects can show surprising figures about the high
spending level of a part of students and the embarrassment of parents in
managing their children’s spending.
The surveys have found out that, students receive 50,000-300,000 dong on average
as pocket money a week. Especially, a group of students from rich families of
some international schools, Le Quy Don, Marie Curie receives more. 36 percent of
students spend 3-5 million dong a month, while 25 percent spend 500,000 dong per
day.
One third of students say the money parents give is not enough for them;
therefore, they do not have money for urgent needs. Many of them decide to
borrow from relatives and friends to satisfy their needs.
44 percent of students from rich families use their pocket money to buy
fashionable clothes, 35 percent on amusement activities, while only 21 percent
spend money on the things that serve their studies.
Students spend most of their money to upgrade their appearance (to buy clothes,
cosmetics), to attend parties and entertainment activities at luxurious places,
because they believe that this is the way of spending of rich people, which can
show their high positions in the society.
An 11th grade female student said that when she was small, she used the clothes
bought by the mother. However, nowadays, she chooses clothes for herself. She
only wears well branded clothes, or she feels diffident before the friends.
Therefore, though receiving 400,000 dong per week from parents, the student is
always short of money, and she always asks for more money.
Parents give money and forget to manage it
According to a survey of Save the Children, the parents of Marie Curie and
Nguyen Du School gave money to children based on the estimates about their
children’s spending. However, they did not check if the children used the money
for the right purposes.
Though all the parents affirmed the importance of educating children about the
value of money and labor, they do not care what their children spend money for.
According to Tran Thi Hue from Save the Children, there are two contradictory
tendencies in parents’ thoughts about giving money to children. Some parents
keep a strict control over the spending of the children, because they believe
that the children are still too small to spend money. Meanwhile, other parents
simply give money to children and do not know what the children do with the
money.
Only 31 percent of students once discussed with parents about how to spend
money, while 2/3 of students never consult with parents about how to manage
their budgets, and they do not want to explain their spending.
A lot of students said that their parents are too busy to spend time to learn
about how the children spend money. Therefore, they simply spend money and never
ask themselves where the money comes from. .They simply ask for the money from
parents when they need money.
Source: NLD