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.
Different kinds of international schools
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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