Studying at international schools is both expensive and risky.

Recently, many international schools with the highest tuition fees in Ho Chi Minh City suddenly announced that they would stop operating, causing confusion among parents.

According to manyeducation experts, parents currently have too little accurate information about international schools. Although each school has different ways of dealing with problems, it is difficult to understand that parents seem to have no choice, being put in a fait accompli situation.

High tuition fees do not necessarily mean peace of mind

As a parent of an elementary school student at the Saigon Pearl International School system, Mr. H. - residing in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City - said that when deciding to invest in sending his child to this school, his family had calculated very carefully.

Mr. H.'s family learned about the program and the school, prepared money, and even moved house so that their child could attend. However, after only one year of study, the school suddenly announced that it was closing. According to him, the average tuition fee per year is about 600 million VND.

Responding to reporters from the Lao Dong Newspaper right after receiving the notice that Saigon Pearl International School would stop operating, many parents said they were confused because they were not prepared. Although the school had announced solutions, what parents needed was a stable learning environment for their children.

Parents surprised when Saigon Pearl International School system announced to stop operating

"If transferring schools, in addition to the difference in tuition fees according to the training program that parents have to prepare, there are many related problems that arise" - said a parent.

Before the incident at Saigon Pearl International School, the long-standing controversy at the American International School Vietnam also caused many disruptions and inconveniences to students' learning. In December 2024, many parents with children studying at Saigon Star International School were also surprised when the school announced that it was temporarily suspending operations due to forced execution of a judgment. The reason for the forced execution was that the land where the school is located (Thanh My Loi Ward, Thu Duc City) has been in dispute with a bank for many years.

According to the 2020 verdict of the District 2 People's Court (old), the investor of Saigon Star International School must return the land to the bank. After a period of temporary suspension of execution, from May to July 2024, the Thu Duc City Civil Judgment Enforcement Office repeatedly issued enforcement notices, requiring the investor to notify teachers, parents, and students that the school had ceased operations at this address. However, the school still enrolled students for the new school year.

Surprisingly, parents did not know in advance that Saigon Star International School was not allowed to operate according to the law. Specifically, this school has not been licensed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been banned from enrolling students since October 2023, but many parents did not know and still paid tuition packages ranging from 500 million to 1.6 billion VND.

How to choose a good school?

According to many education experts, after the incident, some international schools announced that they would stop operating. Although the school or the management agency had different solutions, it was clear that parents were in a fait accompli. Each parent faced different difficulties when the school stopped operating, although most of them had plenty of money.

"Currently, there is not much accurate, official, and transparent information about schools. In fact, many people only know when there is an incident at the school, so parents and students are at risk..." - an expert commented.

Dr. Nguyen Thi Thu Huyen, Director of the Vietnam Bilingual Education Academy, said that of the three schools above, two teach the IB (International Baccalaureate) program. As someone who has worked at two schools offering the IB, Ms. Huyen acknowledged that if the program is to be implemented well, it will require a lot of money and the tuition fees will be very expensive.

Therefore, in the context of economic difficulties and declining enrollment, schools find it very difficult to maintain operations. Many schools change owners, new owners change programs, and cut costs. Meanwhile, teacher salaries sometimes account for up to 70% of total education costs, leading to a decrease in training quality.

According to Dr. Huyen, programs such as IB, Cambridge, IPC/IMYC, Oxford... are all different in quality, especially at the higher education level. At the secondary level, we can clearly see the capacity of the school, including the capacity to lead the profession, the team; the teaching capacity of teachers, the capacity to provide support services to improve the learning outcomes of students...

Therefore, Ms. Huyen emphasized that when choosing a non-public school for all three levels of education for their children, parents should find out the academic performance of high school students at that school, and see if the school owner invests in this level of education. If they invest in good programs, teachers, and learning materials, then they will have good training results.

If parents do not have enough money to pursue long-term education, they should invest in their children's preschool and primary education. Because children's learning habits and love are formed from this stage.

"Choosing a good school at these two levels greatly affects children later on. For example, if you aim for bilingualism, you should choose a school with a bilingual program from preschool to primary school. At the next level - with fewer foreign language lessons, students who want to maintain bilingual learning have many online high school programs from schools around the world , with low tuition fees. The important thing is the students' awareness and self-study skills" - Ms. Huyen acknowledged.

Be careful with prepaid tuition packages.

An education expert said that financial support packages and pre-paid tuition packages are very attractive because parents feel secure, considering that their children's tuition fees are taken care of throughout their high school years, but in reality, they are also prone to risks.

Therefore, parents need to learn carefully about the school before deciding to pay tuition packages. In addition, parents should also choose short-term tuition packages, about 3 years, instead of 7-12 years.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/hoc-truong-quoc-te-vua-dat-do-vua-de-gap-rui-ro-196250227204624229.htm