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VietNamNet Bridge – According to the HCM City Education and Training Department,
by the end of the last year, 27 international schools had been established and
put under the department’s control. However, in fact, hundreds of schools
proclaiming themselves as international schools have been existing for the last
few years.
According to Cao Huy Thao, Principal of the Vietnam – Australia international
school, there are different groups of international schools nowadays.
If only counting actual international schools, internationally standardized
schools or foreign invested schools, there are approximately 30 such schools in
HCM City. Meanwhile, other schools are not really “international”. The runners
of the schools proclaim their schools “international” because they know they
would attract more students and earn more money from the word “international.”
Of the 30 schools, only one has been providing education services in accordance
with the common international standards. Those students who finish the school
would get IB – the degree which is recognized and highly appreciated in most of
the countries in the world.
In Vietnam, modern parents tend to favor western way of education. Therefore,
they would bring their children to international schools, where they believe the
children would receive the most advanced education.
With the special characteristic, the curriculum applied by the school is also
different from other schools of the same group (students learn in English in
accordance with IB standard. Meanwhile, Vietnamese language is considered a
foreign language).
The second group, which includes the Vietnam-Australia international high school
is the product of the cooperation between Vietnam and the Education Department
of Western Australia, put under the control of the Hanoi Education and Training
Department.
When graduating from the school, students would get two certificates at the same
time, including the one granted by the Ministry of Education and Training, and
the other by the Education Department of Western Australia.
The third group of international schools comprises of the schools run by
Vietnamese investors in cooperation with foreign education institutions. This is
the most popular kind of international school nowadays.
Meanwhile, the fourth group of schools, though having the word “international”
in their names, just comprises of people-founded schools. The only thing that
justifies the word is the intensive English lessons the school has committed to
parents and students.
Dr Vu The Dung from the HCM City University of Technology has noted that when
classifying international schools, it’s necessary to consider the qualifications
of graduates. The graduates have to be recognized in qualification in
international working environment and the international learning environment.
Especially, Dung stressed that an international school must be recognized by the
international community – the international learning community and the
international employer community.
International schools only reserved for the rich
There is a common characteristic that all international schools have – the sky
high tuition.
An international school in district 2 in HCM City sets the tuition at 10,000
dollars a year on average for primary and secondary education, and 13,000
dollars a year for high school education. The tuition does not include the
expenses on school uniform and some other expenses.
A people-founded international school, which has become famous in HCM City,
providing education services from pre-school to high-school education at nearly
10 campuses, has informed the tuition of approximately 100 million dong for
primary education in the 2012-2013 academic year.
A parent, whose child goes to an international school in Tan Binh district,
complained that the tuitions of the international schools in Vietnam are even
higher than in the US. The enrolment fee in Vietnam is 1000 dollars a year,
while a student in the US has to pay 500 dollars only.
Source: Lao dong
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