Hanoi: Parents 'accuse' private schools of blatantly enrolling students without being assigned quotas

Talking to PV Tien Phong , Mr. TH in Linh Dam ( Hanoi ) said that in 2024-2025, after an interview with the school, his family sent their child to grade 1. Because it is close to home, the family had previously had a child who finished primary school at this school. Seeing that the school's facilities were good, they completely trusted their second child to attend.

But during the school year, parents were shocked to discover that their child’s information was not available in the industry’s database. They contacted the school many times but were unable to get an exact answer as to when it would be available.

“We were extremely confused and worried about whether our child’s first grade results would be recognized or not. Therefore, at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, even though the student had been at school for a few days, I still ran around asking to transfer my child to another school,” said Mr. H.

However, according to Mr. H., when he and some other parents contacted primary schools in the city to transfer their children, many schools refused because they were afraid that the first grade results would not be recognized. After "knocking on the doors" of many places, finally one school agreed to transfer their children to, but only took responsibility from second grade, while the parents had to deal with the old school for the first grade records and transcripts. "So, whether our children will have to repeat first grade or not is what we are concerned and worried about," Mr. H wondered.

Another parent also said that last year, when his child was about to enter first grade, he went to the school’s website to find out about the publicly posted enrollment information, so he did not hesitate to register. After his child had been in first grade for a while, the parent learned that the school was recruiting students “underground” because it had not been assigned a quota by the management agency.

According to this parent, the surprising thing is that after a school year, the school is still enrolling students and teaching as usual. The parent has repeatedly expressed their opinions to the homeroom teacher and the school but has not received a satisfactory answer.

The school has no solution?

According to parents whose children studied in grade 1 last year at this school, the most recent meeting was on July 30, when school representatives including Mr. Hoang Xuan Tien, Chairman of the School Board; Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy, representative of the Board of Directors and an office staff had a meeting with representatives of parents, with minutes attached.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed related issues, in which parents raised the issue of students having completed a year of study at school but only having hard copies of their grades and transcripts. When parents accessed the industry database, they only saw the identification code from July 2025 but the scores had not been updated.

The minutes of the meeting also stated: "The school cannot update the children's learning results on the database (first grade learning results). The school guarantees the legality of the children's paper transcripts. The school commits to taking responsibility for the missing digital transcripts of the children or the missing learning results on the industry database."

Minutes of meeting between school representatives and parents on July 30.

On August 8, about a dozen parents whose children were in first grade at Thang Long International Primary School sent a petition for help to Hanoi City, Hanoi Department of Education and Training, and Dinh Cong Ward.

In the petition, parents requested that, according to regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training , teachers must update students' scores and learning results on the data system immediately after grading tests, before summarizing the school year.

Updating scores to the industry database must be accurate, public, and transparent so that students and parents can monitor and serve as an important basis in the digital transformation process.

However, at the end of the school year, parents suspected that this school had not been assigned enrollment quotas, so first grade students had no data in the Education and Training sector database system. The lack of database on the system greatly affected the children's learning, especially in school transfer procedures, admission, and verification of learning results. This not only caused confusion and anxiety for parents but also affected the legitimate rights of students.

The school continues to enroll students.

Although the rights of first grade students in the 2024-2025 school year have not been resolved and the school has not given parents a satisfactory answer, the school's website continues to post information on enrollment for the new school year, 2025-2026.

Accordingly, this school publicly enrolls students in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, of which grade 1 will enroll 250 students divided into 10 classes. The conditions for students to enroll are good health, no lisp, no stuttering, and no congenital disabilities. This school also offers an admission method of assessing ability to test memory, expression, pronunciation, etc., and even a health check. "The school will refuse to accept students with congenital disabilities or who are not healthy enough according to medical conclusions," the school's admission announcement stated.

After receiving feedback from parents, reporters contacted school representatives but received no response.

Regarding the incident, the leader of the Hanoi Department of Education and Training said that he had received the information and would inspect and strictly handle it according to regulations.

According to regulations, the management of school activities at preschool, primary and secondary levels from July 1 is managed by the People's Committees of wards and communes. From the 2024-2025 school year onwards, the assignment of quotas to this school is the function and task of the Department of Education and Training of Hoang Mai district. Now, this department has been dissolved and assigned its functions and tasks to the Department of Culture and Society of the wards.

Thang Long International Primary School, Thang Long International Secondary School and Thang Long International High School belong to the Bill Gates Schools Education System, located at Lot X1, Bac Linh Dam Urban Area, Dai Kim Ward, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi City. The school's website shows that from August 4, it has welcomed students back to school, starting the 2025-2026 school year.