How Much Do Parents Spend Each Year on a Child in a Ho Chi Minh City Public Primary School?

Public primary school students in Ho Chi Minh City will be exempt from tuition in the 2026-27 school year, but tuition-free education does not mean cost-free schooling. Families may still pay for services and educational activities, depending on the school and local regulations.

For one family in Cau Ong Lanh Ward, the expected total approaches 80 million Vietnamese dong for the year. Lương Hoàng Anh, whose child is in second grade, estimated that textbooks and English books cost about 400,000 dong. Notebooks, pens, mathematics supplies, covers, a backpack and shoes cost more than 1 million dong, while uniforms cost more than 1 million dong. Those items together came to nearly 2.5 million dong.

The child attends school for two sessions a day, studies an enhanced English program and eats lunch at school. The family also pays listed school charges, registers the child for subjects offered through the school program and contributes toward monthly electricity costs for air conditioning. The school had not yet issued the detailed 2026-27 collection notice, but comparable charges in the previous school year came to about 2.5 million dong per month. Over nine months, that would total nearly 23 million dong.

Outside school, the family pays for swimming, martial arts, English classes at a language center and online mental mathematics. Those activities cost about 4 million to 4.5 million dong per month, or roughly 54 million dong a year.

Other families spend less. Some attend school for two sessions but do not use school meals, take extra classes, join clubs or register for additional subjects. Ho Chi Minh City’s education department has instructed schools to control learning costs, prevent excessive collections and publish detailed plans for each charge before collecting money from parents.