Many city dwellers in new urban areas are sending their children topublic schools in central Hanoi, despite crowded classes of up to 50students.

This is because they cannot afford the high fees charged by better-equipped private schools.

As a result, many modern private schools are virtually empty, whilestudents in public schools are sometimes forced to study in residents'houses, hired by the schools due to a severe shortage of classrooms.

Nguyen Thu Le, a resident in Hoang Mai district's LinhDam Urban Area, said she took her three-year-old son to a publicpre-school in Hoan Kiem district over 10km away, despite there being aninternational pre-school right next to her house.

"The pre-school is quite good, with standard facilities and foreignteachers, but the monthly fees of more than 10 million VND (470 USD) aretoo much for me," Le said.

"I have no choice butto keep sending him to his old school, although I moved to this placenearly two years ago. The fees at the public school are one-third ofthose at the private school."

Le said her son'spublic school was overcrowded with 45 students per class, but acceptedthat "most public schools are in the same situation."

Le is not alone. Many parents in new urban areas have refused to sendtheir children to standard private schools nearby due to expensive fees,even though there are no public schools nearby.

Figures from the municipal Department of Construction showed there were38 schools across 10 new urban areas in the city. Only four of whichwere public schools - the rest were private or international models.

Thus, many schools in new urban areas – backed byinvestment of tens of billions of dong such as Global InternationalSchool in Yen Hoa Urban Area and Thang Long Kidsmart in Dich Vong UrbanArea in Cau Giay district – suffer a lack of students.

Nguyen Thi Hong Lien, CEO of Global International School told Tin Tuc(News) newspaper the school was built to international standards with aroom for pre-schoolers spanning 100 square metres, a 60- square metreroom for primary students, as well as other facilities. However, therewere only 110 students across all grades.

"The feesare higher than public schools as our school's facilities are muchbetter, but it hasn't attracted many students to enroll," she said.

In the meantime, students in public schools such as Le Ngoc HanPrimary School and Ngo Thi Nham Primary School in Hai Ba Trung districthave been seen queuing up outside temporary classrooms hired in nearbyresidents' houses.

Nguyen Nhu Thang, head of Hai BaTrung district's Education and Training Sub-department said she hadasked the city authority to provide more land to build schools for thelast ten years, but it was difficult due to land fund shortages.

Vice head of the municipal Education and Training Department Pham ThiHong Nga said the State always required investors in new urban areas tobuild schools before selling apartments to people, but many didn'tfollow these requirements.

To tackle the problem,the city has implemented regular inspections and requires investors tobuild schools in urban areas while they are still under construction.

For new urban areas where people have already movedin, the city has asked investors to quickly build nearby public schoolsto serve residents.-VNA