Things about the “Cambridge standard school”, but not all parents know

Criteria need to be met for a Cambridge school

Cambridge Assessment International Education (CAIE), which has a history of more than 160 years and presence in more than 170 countries around the world, has a strong team of educators and the world-leading system of teaching and learning materials.

“Be a member of CAIE means that the school has opportunity to access and use valuable educational resources and many other effective add-ons and services of Cambridge as well as Cambridge Publishing”, according to Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan – Schools Principal and Director of the Academic Division of Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) - the pioneer in teaching Cambridge program in Viet Nam from the 2013-2014 school year.

However, not all schools can be a member of Cambridge International Schools. According to Mr. Melvyn Lim - Senior Country Manager of CAIE, the process of assessing a Cambridge school is very strict, including 27 criteria in terms of quality of teaching and learning; facilities; management team; vision, core values and legal compliance. If any of the criteria does not meet the standard, the school will be considered as unsatisfactory. These standards are applied for all nearly 13,000 Cambridge schools worldwide.

Mr. Melvyn Lim – Senior Country Manager of CAIE and Mrs. Nguyen Thi Thanh Xuan - School Principal and Director, Academic Division of VAS at the award ceremony for VAS’s students who achieved high results in Cambridge international exams.

Mr. Melvyn also noted that, even though these schools have been accredited, they will still be re-evaluated by CAIE every year, especially focus on operation management and certification exams processes. Cambridge also gets reviews from teachers, parents, students as well as partners of those schools. “If any that does not meet the standard is detected, CAIE will require the school to make improvements within a specific time and will take back the certification if the school cannot do it”, Mr. Melvyn said.

“The Cambridge program focuses on maximizing potential and making a difference for each student. Therefore, teaching and learning facilities and equipments must meet the high standards of practicality, promoting creativity as well as safety. At VAS, the laboratory equipments must be imported from the UK to meet the Cambridge standards. In addition, CAIE also has very high requirements for teacher quality. Each year, Cambridge teachers have to undergo professional training and be certificated by CAIE to continue teaching the program”, Mrs. Thanh Xuan said.

VAS's laboratory system with equipment imported from the UK to meet the Cambridge standards.

According to Mr. Melvyn, there are many high schools in Vietnam currently using the Cambridge program in teaching, however not all schools meet Cambridge standards. Parents can visit the Cambridge website to check if a school is a member of Cambridge.

Parents should also be known that a school is accredited as a Cambridge international school does not mean all of its campuses are accredited to teach the Cambridge programme. Some schools are only certificated for one or a few campuses in their system, so it is important to do certain research before making any decision. Currently, Vietnam has 65 schools that are accredited as Cambridge International school,including 7 campuses of VAS.

“I am very impressed with the high achievements of VAS’s students in the Cambridge exams every year. During nearly 10 years of teaching Cambridge programme, VAS has always been one of the leading schools in Vietnam in both number of students who taking the Cambridge exams and the number of students who got high results in Cambridge exams. The average scores of VAS students are always equal to or higher than the world average. We are also happy and proud to see VAS students achieved many valuable scholarships from prestigious universities around the world every year”, Mr. Melvyn said.

Mr. Melvyn Lim is giving awards to VAS’s students who have achieved excellent results in Cambridge international exams.

The certification is the "sufficient" criteria

According to Mrs. Thanh Xuan, becoming a member of the Cambridge International School system is only an initial "need" criteria, but not a "sufficient" criteria to consider the quality of a Cambridge school.

In fact, there are some schools that have been accredited as a Cambridge schools but they do not teach or do not completely teach all subjects of the Cambridge academic program. Students from these schools only study Cambridge English subject, so it will be difficult or impossible for them to achieve Cambridge.

Also, not all Cambridge schools in Vietnam are eligible to organize Cambridge international exams for students to be awarded with Cambridge certificates/Diplomas, including: Cambridge Primary Checkpoint, Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint, Cambridge IGCSE, Cambridge AS Level and Cambridge A Level.

These certificates are the "passport" for students to win many valuable scholarships and freely choose their dream universities in Vietnam and also around the world. Therefore, parents need to find out what certificates children will receive after graduation.