Many Southeast Asian countries have adopted a policy of “free education” for students through middle school and, in some cases, through high school.
But in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, it isn’t really free.
Many additional or hidden costs — for uniforms, textbooks, supplies, transportation, extracurricular activities and sometimes even teachers’ salaries or school maintenance or improvements — make education too expensive for some families to afford.
In Vietnam, the Communist Party Politburo recently eliminated tuition fees for public school students from preschool to grade 12, a move parents initially welcomed — before learning about the high costs of other monthly educational expenses.
According to a Feb. 28 report by state media, the Politburo decided to waive the tuition fees beginning in the 2025-26 school year, following a recommendation from the Ministry of Education and Training.
The move marks the first time Vietnam has ordered an end to the fees, which applied to some 23 million students, on a national scale, said the report. Around 30 trillion Vietnamese dong (US$1.17 billion) will be applied from the country’s budget to make up for the shortfall, it said.
The government will provide students at private schools with subsidies equivalent to the public school tuition rate, but private school families will be required to cover the remaining difference of their child’s yearly tuition, the report said.
The state media report cited the Department of Education for Ho Chi Minh City as saying that monthly tuition for public high school students ranges from 100,000-200,000 Vietnamese dong (US$4-8), while tuition for preschool students is around 300,000 Vietnamese dong (US$12).
A mother of two children in middle and high school in Hanoi applauded the end to tuition fees, but said other costs were higher than tuition.
“While this may be a significant cost for the government, a tuition exemption of 200,000–300,000 dong is quite small compared to the other expenses parents have to cover for their children’s education in the city,” the mother told RFA Vietnamese, who like others in this report spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal.
The mother said she spends between 1 million and 2 million dong (US$39-78) per month on tuition fees, meals and drinking water. Additionally, families are expected to contribute to a yearly “parents' fund,” which schools use for events like Teachers' Day, Vietnam Women’s Day and other extracurricular activities.
Another parent, whose child is in high school in Hanoi, told RFA that she remains concerned about monthly education expenses — particularly a 325,000 dong (US$13) fee for the student’s' afterschool classes.
Concerns over high and opaque fees at public schools in Vietnam — which are seen as a burden for low-income families — have been widely reported in both state and social media for years.
In 2024, the average monthly income of workers in Vietnam was approximately 7.7 million dong (US$300), according to the country’s General Statistics Office.
Schools ‘don’t have enough money'
In Laos, public schooling is free but students are required to pay several other unofficial fees for their education, according to parents. This includes tutoring fees and the cost of textbooks, as well as contributions towards maintenance fees and utility bills.
A parent who previously lived in the capital Vientiane told RFA Lao he had to pay up to 650,000 Lao kip (US$30) for “learning and teaching activities” each year his child was in first through fifth grade.
“On top of that I had to pay 150,000 kip (US$7) per month for a ‘special tuition fee’ for a subject my child wasn’t good at,” said the parent, who also declined to be named.
The same parent recently relocated his family to Khammouane province and noted that schools in the countryside collect less than those in the cities.
“They collect money to pay for textbooks for school and everyone has to pay 60,000 kip (US$3) per year for school maintenance,” he said. “But poorer families may not be able to afford it, preventing their kids from getting into schools.”
In Bokeo province, on Laos' northern border with Thailand, another parent told RFA that he had to pay 300-400 Thai baht (US$9-12) for electricity each year since his child first began attending middle school.
“When I first learned from the government that school is free, I felt so happy,” he said. “However, the school claims that they don’t have enough money, so they have to collect it from parents.”
Speaking to RFA, an educator said that his and other schools have to spend money on things such as “repairing restrooms, painting, fixing sports facilities, building fences and buying materials” each year, requiring them to ask parents to contribute.
‘I am stressed out and exhausted’
Cambodian parents told RFA that while tuition is free, they also find fees at primary and secondary school to be exorbitant and complain that they take up a large part of their daily income.
Those who live in extreme poverty often stop their children’s education altogether by 6th grade because of the cost, they said.
Some have likened the teaching profession to a “business,” despite free tuition, citing the payments they must regularly make to their children’s schools.
Soeung Sakona, a tailor based in Siem Reap province’s Sala Kamreuk Sangkat, has two daughters studying at a high school in Siem Reap city and said she must spend at least 10,000 riel (US$2.50) in fees on each of them daily.
Tutoring — often from the same people who teach at public school by day — textbooks, transportation and other school supplies are among the fees she said she must account for each day, leaving her with little wiggle room for her remaining income.
“Every day is very tense for me because I cannot save anything ... I spend a lot on them for their daily education to cover gas as well as their private courses,” she said. “I have to work hard to save and I can’t afford to eat nutritious food, so I am stressed out and exhausted.”
Soeung Sakona said, on average, she spends about US$1,000 per year on her children’s education, and that once they started secondary school she had to sell some of her land to raise money, as she was unable to earn enough through work to cover the cost.
Other parents complained that while Cambodia’s Constitution guarantees primary and secondary schooling for all, free of charge, children whose families who cannot afford a tutor are often at a disadvantage in terms of the quality of their overall education.
But parents with even more precarious incomes told RFA that they plan to take their children out of school entirely at some point because they can’t afford the extra fees.
Attempts by RFA to reach Cambodia’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sports spokesperson Khuon Vicheka for comment went unanswered by the time of publishing.
Lack of high schools in countryside
Parents in Myanmar are also expected to cover extracurricular fees at most public schools in urban and suburban areas for their child’s otherwise “free” education up to high school, paying around 100,000 kyats (US$23) annually.
The fees are typically solicited through fundraising for school-initiated and government policy-related activities, and can include contributions for holiday celebrations, farewell parties for staff, and similar occasions. In some cases, parents are asked to help cover a teacher’s pay or improvements to the school.
Additionally, students can expect to pay around 250,000 kyats (US$57) annually for school supplies such as textbooks, notebooks, pencils, pens and uniforms.
In some rural areas, parents are not expected to pay school fees. Their children share supplies during the academic year and are not required to wear uniforms.
In other parts of the countryside, students only have access to elementary and middle schooling, and are required to attend a urban boarding school if they intend to pursue a high school education. The cost of boarding school varies by grade level, ranging from 2.5 million to 4 million kyats (US$570 to 910) annually for accommodation, food and tuition.
Additionally, some rural schools lack teachers — particularly at the middle school level. In such cases, parents must hire teachers from the city, contributing individually to their salaries. The annual cost for hiring a teacher ranges from 50,000 to 100,000 kyats (US$11 to 23) per family.
For those who are lucky enough to be able to afford it, private schools typically charge from 100,000 to 250,000 kyats (US$23 to 57) for monthly tuition. Additional expenses — including transportation, uniforms and other school-related costs — often exceed 3 million kyats (US$690) per year.
Translated by Anna Vu, Max Avary, Sum Sokry, and Kyaw Min Htun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.