Teachers on strike, school chairman hangs debt collection banner
In recent days, the case of the American International School Vietnam (AISVN) owing parents more than 3,200 billion VND has continued to cause a stir. The incident broke out in September last year, when many parents hung banners and even called for help because they could not "collect the debt" from the American International School.
This is the amount of money parents lend to the school without interest, without collateral, only through a loan contract. In return, their children can study for free, and the school will pay back the loan when the student graduates or transfers schools.
By mid-March this year, the American International School had to temporarily suspend classes, causing parents to be upset and worried. Due to financial difficulties and the inability to pay teachers’ salaries, many teachers have gone on strike, with only 18-19 teachers at one point remaining at school. Some parents said they sent their children to school but had to sit in the cafeteria because there were no teachers.
In response to the incident, the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has requested the chairman of the school board and the principal of the American International School to promptly comply with the regulations on professional activities, school management, and the duties and powers of the principal regarding the school's educational activities.
In addition, the school must quickly find a solution to end the situation of teachers taking leave en masse to ensure the organization of educational activities and learning rights for students, and at the same time resolve the issue of students transferring schools according to the needs of their parents.
International school with 14 billion in tuition fees suddenly closes
Previously, in September 2023, Green Shoots International School located in Cam Chau ward (Hoi An, Quang Nam) suddenly closed even though parents had paid more than 14 billion VND in tuition. The school's principal, a British citizen, had returned to his country before, so it was extremely difficult for parents to get their tuition money back.
According to the license, this school teaches the British national education program (IPC, IGCSE) and the international baccalaureate program (IBD and IBDP), with tuition fees ranging from 350-400 million VND per year. Parents can pay monthly or quarterly, so many have paid hundreds of millions when their children enroll. According to statistics, parents have paid a total of more than 14 billion VND in tuition fees.
After failing to contact or get back the money they had paid, the parents filed a complaint with the authorities.
Students abused by friends at international school
This incident occurred at the International School of Ho Chi Minh City - American Academy (ISHCMC-AA), which caused a "storm" in public opinion in 2022. A mother accused her daughter of being beaten and punched in the chest by a friend right on the school grounds, causing her to suffer "severe psychological trauma".
However, according to this parent, when she came to work, the school did not allow her to meet the person who assaulted her child and pushed the matter to the two families to resolve among themselves.
The parents then livestreamed their child being beaten and the school’s inappropriate behavior. Most of the comments on social media said that the international school was irresponsible, handled the situation tactlessly and unprofessionally. The online community then flooded Google to vote 1 star for the school’s website with tens of thousands of reviews.
After the incident, the school posted a letter of correction, and affirmed: “As an international school, we have the expertise to resolve difficult situations between students, help them continue to learn and understand, and the school continues to do this privately to protect students with all our resources.”
In the face of the controversy, the Ministry of Education and Training requested the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee to direct relevant agencies and functional units to verify information and handle the incident promptly and in accordance with regulations, ensuring safety and psychological stability for students, teachers and parents.
According to the announcement, Ho Chi Minh City International School is a school with tuition fees ranging from over 500 - 600 million VND/year.
International schools reduce food rations
The story of parents of Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) being upset when they saw their children's meals costing hundreds of thousands of dong, but only having a few pieces of meat once caused a stir. When directly seeing the meals of primary school students, many parents were upset and said "the meals were more like workers' meals than international school students' meals".
Vietnam Australia International School has many campuses in Ho Chi Minh City. This is a foreign-invested school with tuition fees of hundreds of millions/year. Of which, the meal fee for secondary school is 7,695,000 VND/10 weeks; the meal fee for primary school is 6,300,000 VND/10 weeks. Thus, the meal fee per day ranges from 130,000 to 150,000 VND.
The school management board and the food supplier later admitted that there had been some negligence in the management and inspection of the quantity of meals before serving them to students. Along with the apology, the school also made a commitment and solutions to upgrade and improve the meals for students.
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