Houses, offices, and pubs "turned" into private schools (part 1)

Private schools are only allowed to recruit a few dozen 10th grade students.

Although Circular No. 13/2020/TT-BGDDT clearly stipulates that high schools must have a minimum size of 15 classes and a maximum of 45 classes; the area of land for school construction is determined based on the number of classes and students, but must ensure a minimum average of ^10m2 /student. For schools with boarding facilities, the land area for boarding facilities must ensure ^6m2 /boarding student.

In addition, the Circular of the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) also stipulates that the location of schools and school sites must be consistent with the local education development plan and meet fire and explosion prevention requirements. The construction items directly serving teaching and learning activities and organizing higher education activities must not exceed 4 floors and in addition to the main classroom block, must also meet the conditions for a series of subject classrooms, multi-function rooms, learning support rooms, libraries, educational equipment rooms, medical rooms, etc.

Houses, offices, and pubs — Address: 217 No Trang Long, Binh Thanh ward, Saigon High School.

Despite such regulations, in reality, most private high schools in wards in Ho Chi Minh City did not have adequate space. Some places were misusing houses and land by "converting" houses, company offices, factories, etc., even beer halls into schools.

In order for non-public high schools to have time to enroll students for the new school year, on May 28, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the City Department of Education and Training, signed a decision on assigning enrollment quotas for grade 10 in the 2025-2026 school year to 64 private high schools and multi-level general schools in Ho Chi Minh City (before the merger). The appendix attached to this decision clearly states the number of classes and the number of students at the beginning of the high school year that schools are allowed to enroll at locations that have been approved to operate educational activities.

According to the address assigned to the 10th grade enrollment quota by the Department of Education and Training, we went to the location of the Thai Binh Duong Primary - Secondary School and High School on Bach Dang Street, Tan Son Hoa Ward. This is a house with a facade of about 8m wide, built up to 7 floors high. All 3 levels of Thai Binh Duong Primary - Secondary School and High School are located in the facade house, built like an office building. Therefore, in the upcoming school year, this school is only assigned to enroll 1 10th grade class with a total of only 16 students.

The location assigned with the 10th grade enrollment quota in the next decision of the Department of Education and Training that we were present at was No. 103 Ha Huy Giap and land plot No. 643 - map sheet No. 43 in An Phu Dong ward of Dong Duong High School. Although it is only a 4-storey townhouse located behind the front house and the adjacent land plot, it is also allowed to enroll 120 students in the new school year.

At addresses 215D - 215E and 217 No Trang Long, Binh Thanh Ward of Saigon High School, although assigned to enroll 10 grade 10 classes with 300 students, the school has not yet put up a name sign. Even at 215D - 215E No Trang Long, a sign says College of Pharmacy is hung; only address 217 No Trang Long used to be a drinking place with a 2-story house, the space in front is still covered with tarpaulin...

Also assigned to enroll up to 5 10th graders, but the total number of students is only 80 students, an average of 16 students/class, Bac Son Secondary and High School on Nguyen Van Qua Street, Dong Hung Thuan Ward is a 4-storey house running to the back with many small rooms. Nguyen Binh Khiem Secondary and High School on Ngo Quyen Street, An Dong Ward are located in a 6-storey building with the sign of Hung Vuong University, with a frontage of about 30m.

The roof floor was used to create an additional floor and was assigned the enrollment target of 10 classes with 350 students. Similarly, the training facility at 51/4 Hoa Binh Street, Tan Phu Ward of An Duong Vuong High School was assigned the enrollment target of 4 10th grade classes with 120 students. It is an old factory building, the signboard is still there but the school name is no longer there.

In the same situation, a series of private high schools or other high schools such as Nguyen Tri Phuong Inter-level Primary, Secondary and High School located on Road 30, An Hoi Tay Ward are allowed to enroll 1 grade 10 class with 20 students; Phan Boi Chau Secondary and High School with 4 houses on Nguyen Dinh Chi Street, Binh Tay Ward are allowed to enroll 3 classes with 84 students; Van Lang Inter-level Primary, Secondary and High School on Tan Thanh Street, Cho Lon Ward are allowed to enroll 3 classes with 60 students...

International schools are also "split" into many teaching locations?

The same goes for “domestic” schools, and many schools, despite being “international”, have no better facilities. The Department of Education and Training assigned the Viet-Uc Primary, Secondary and High School to enroll 26 10th grade classes, but only 483 students, and it was divided into 6 locations. The location at 99 Lot B, Nguyen Thi Thap, Tan My Ward was only allowed to enroll 2 10th grade classes with only 25 students; the location at 1 Street 20, Him Lam New Urban Area, Tan Hung Ward was allowed to enroll 3 10th grade classes with 46 students.

Although Asia International Primary, Secondary and High School was assigned the target of enrolling 30 10th grade classes with 600 students, the location at 226A Pasteur, Xuan Hoa Ward was only allowed to enroll 1 class with 20 students; the location at 29-31 Tran Nhat Duat, Tan Dinh Ward was allowed to enroll 2 10th grade classes with a total of 40 students. TIS International Primary, Secondary and High School at 305 Nguyen Trong Tuyen, Phu Nhuan Ward is a high-rise building about 8m wide, and is allowed to enroll 3 10th grade classes with 65 students...

In particular, in the list of schools assigned enrollment quotas, Nam Viet Secondary and High School is licensed to have up to 450 quotas at the training facility at No. 25, 21/1-3 and 23/7-9 Duong Duc Hien, Tay Thanh Ward. This address has a signboard of Tran Lam Sports Club - Swimming Pool - Tennis Court at the gate, but inside is a signboard of Vietnam College of Medical Technology - Pharmacy.

Asking the security guard here about Nam Viet Secondary and High School, the security guard confirmed that this school had moved a long time ago, but it was not clear where it had moved to, but the signboard of Nam Viet Secondary and High School was still hanging here. According to the list of schools granted enrollment quotas for grade 10 in the 2025-2026 school year by the Department of Education and Training, Nam Viet Secondary and High School is only allowed to enroll students at 3 campuses, including the location where the premises were returned and the campus in Go Vap district (old), and the campus in District 12 (old), with a total of 1,110 students.

In addition to the issue of how schools will manage the quality of teaching and learning with "split" schools, with a quota of 20 students per class, international schools with tuition fees of hundreds of millions of VND per year can still talk about covering expenses. On the contrary, schools with "domestic" tuition fees with revenues of 10 million VND per month or less, whether they can cover expenses or not is an obvious issue. This is also the reason why private schools have not been able to accumulate resources to reinvest in more systematic facilities in recent years.

Mr. P. (requesting anonymity), a person with many years of experience in the private education sector in the city, admitted: In the old Ho Chi Minh City area, there are nearly 100 private high schools, but of these, only about 20% of the school owners have bought land, created proper school and classroom facilities, and are mainly international schools, high-quality "domestic" schools belonging to educational corporations, the rest mainly rent houses, vacant land, factories, and company office buildings to use as schools.

Explaining to us why many schools are only allowed by the Department of Education and Training to enroll 20 students per class, Mr. P asked: Bedrooms and offices are turned into classrooms, how can they "cram" 40 - 50 students per class like in public schools?

In response to our question about how many students there are in a class, will the schools combine classes to reduce costs? Will the schools and locations that have not been licensed to operate or have not been granted enrollment quotas illegally enroll students or share students to teach? Mr. P. could only shake his head and say that this depends on the inspection and supervision of the Department of Education and Training. According to the amended Law on Inspection that took effect from July 1, the Department-level Inspectorate will no longer exist, so how the Department of Education and Training will manage private education activities is also a question that needs to be raised.

Regarding violations in the use of residential land and commercial service land instead of educational planning land of private schools, Mr. P. frankly said: No landlord who rents out houses and land to open schools is willing to convert the above valuable land into educational land at the request of the school owner, due to concerns about the property's value decreasing. Even when the house and land are owned by the school owner, converting them into educational land is not simple because it must comply with the planning and converting agricultural land into educational land is even more difficult.

Source: https://cand.com.vn/giao-duc/nha-o-van-phong-quan-nhau-bien-thanh-truong-tu-thuc-bai-1--i775787/