Picking schools for your kids post-covid-19: Keep a cool head!
Urgent need of tens of thousands of parents
In the new school year of 2020-2021, HCMC expects to welcome 200,000 students who will begin the first year of each level (Grade 1, Grade 6 and Grade 10). In Grade 10 alone, over 80,000 students attended the entry exam last year. Although the new school year is coming shortly, the entry exams remain uncertain because of the pandemic. The need to pick the right school of tens of thousands of parents and their students therefore become ever more urgent.
Aside from public schools, the city is home to over 1,000 educational institutions, ranging from kindergartens to private and international high schools. They are set up to meet the diverse interest of parents in different tuition fees, training programmes and the corresponding output quality. Of these educational facilities, international schools are the first priority of the class of parents who earn middle or higher income.
Wise choice
The tuition fees offered by international schools in Vietnam are the fourth highest in Asia. This result is from a 2019 poll of 688 international schools in 27 countries and territories conducted by Expat Finder, a company providing information and support services for families moving abroad. According to the survey, Vietnam has an average annual tuition fee of US$17,941 per year (about VND420 million), behind only China, Singapore and Hong Kong. This rate ranks 13th in the world, which also represents Vietnamese parents’ priority in investment in education for their children.
However, the end of the global pandemic which has adversely affected the whole country as well as income of every family remains nowhere to be seen. Unnecessary spending has been cut drastically, including spending on education, which traditionally accounts for a quarter or a third of a family’s total income. In general education, this is a long-term process which parents should stay calm to think about. Tuition fees at international schools in HCMC range from VND3 to 8 billion. That is the amount needed for a student to finish all the curricula from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Bilingual schools become the trend
Many students are returning home to study while high schools and universities worldwide remain closed. Parents realize that the switch of international schools to a bilingual environment is a practical choice at the time being so as to cut parents’ spending while still retaining the curricula and graduation certificates.
Take for example, the Cambridge general education programme which is being taught at the British International School (BIS) and the Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) in line with bilingual curricula. Both are official Cambridge schools which offer the same curricula and are assessed by the Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE) together with the AS/ A Level certificate. However, the tuition fees at VAS is only from a half to two-thirds. Meanwhile, VAS school studying CAP or CAP International programmes may take the national exam for high school graduation to attend domestic universities if they wish to.
The facilities and curricula of the two models are relatively compatible. Meanwhile, VAS’s extracurricula, talent cultivation, outdoor exercises and other educational programmes to boost core value as well as soft skills and life skills are designed to maximize students’ potential. Students are helped to bring into full play their academic potential and other skills. They will also gain rich experience in community activities to be ready to adapt to a new learning environment or gain considerable advantage when applying for scholarships.
What’s more, the majority of Asian families want their children to study in a bilingual learning environment so that they can be fluent in both English and Vietnamese. This can partly relieve parents’ worries that their kids may neglect their mother tongue or the country’s culture and history if they work in an English-only speaking environment.
In the world’s new situation, a high-quality bilingual school which offers world-recognized certificates can ensure students’ safety in Vietnam and save considerable costs of investment in education.
