AISVN International School Department: There is a legal gap

Many issues were raised by the incident at the American International School Vietnam (AISVN), when the school was facing financial difficulties, causing many teachers to strike and many parent groups to write petitions for help everywhere.

Exchange with Youth, independent education expert Bui Khanh Nguyen - who has many years of monitoring the international education field - believes that even in the worst situations, students' right to continuous education needs to be carefully considered by all parties. .

The law does not regulate cases of school bankruptcy

* Can a private high school declare "bankruptcy", sir?

– As far as I know, neither the Education Law nor the charter of high schools currently has regulations on school bankruptcy. This may be because public schools still dominate and play a key role in national education.

However, if considered from the perspective of a private school operating like a business, completely following the laws of the market, including the law of supply and demand and the law of elimination, then the situation of a school going bankrupt is completely possible. can happen.

In some countries like the US, there are also schools that go bankrupt when they encounter financial difficulties because they cannot recruit enough students or cannot find enough funding.

* In the worst case scenario, the school cannot continue to operate, will the students be "helpless" because they suddenly lost their place to study, sir?

– Although a situation where a private school goes bankrupt is theoretically possible, education is a business field with conditions attached. Therefore, education management agencies need to provide guidance to handle arising situations and stabilize learning for students.

For example, education management agencies can act as intermediaries to introduce schools with equivalent programs for students to transfer to.

On the other hand, normally the public system may be willing to sponsor a private school that is forced to go bankrupt due to difficulties or is forced to close due to violations.

But it must also be seen that for students who have studied international programs, even when public schools open their doors to accept students, it is almost difficult for them to study the Vietnamese program because it is incompatible.

General education is different from other types of services in that it requires stability and continuity. To some extent, education is an "essential service" for children like food, drinking water, electricity... so there also needs to be a mechanism to ensure educational security.

Expert Bui Khanh Nguyen

Need remote prevention mechanism

* What can parents do to claim their rights in this situation, sir?

– When a school declares closure, parents have the right to reclaim the unused tuition so they can transfer to another school. If the tuition has been paid and has been used, there needs to be an inspection agency to see if there are errors in the use of school resources that lead to student tuition money being misappropriated.

If the school only explains that the reason for the teacher's salary is too high, it is an incomplete explanation and requires an inspection by a management agency or an independent audit organization. Regarding civil relations, parents have the right to sue the school's legal entity or individual school management leaders and participate in the creditors' conference.

* Is it possible to take measures to remotely prevent similar incidents, sir?

– In my opinion, it is necessary to have a strict monitoring mechanism that is legislated to prevent any organization with impure motives, for example wanting to set up an educational model, collecting money in advance from students and then then "drained" the school's resources and sought bankruptcy under the "limited liability" process.

I also question the educational quality accreditation organizations here. How did they accredit the school? What are the school's accreditation results? Do parents have the right to know the results or is it "confidential" information of the school?

As far as I know, organizations that accredit the education quality of international schools such as CIS (Council of International Schools) and WASC (Western Association of Schools of America) all have strict accreditation criteria, in That includes content about school administration and financial resources.