AISVN International School Department: Calling on parents to contribute more money for the school to operate

Overview of the meeting with parents of AISVN International School this afternoon, March 30 - Photo: DAO THU

The meeting was attended by Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Director of the Departmentof Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, and more than 500 parents to discuss solutions to ensure students' learning rights.

Need to mobilize short-term capital to pay teachers' salary debt

Speaking to parents at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu said that yesterday (March 29), AIS American International Education Joint Stock Company (investor of AISVN International School) submitted a report on restructuring the company to continue maintaining the stable operation of the school, sent to the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training.

What did the representative of AISVN international school say to parents after the scandal?

The important immediate goal is that the company needs to mobilize short-term capital as soon as possible, enough to operate stably until the end of 2023 - 2024 for students, in which priority is given to financial resources to cover salaries, insurance, and housing for foreign teachers to stabilize teaching.

According to the short-term plan, the school plans to spend 125 billion VND. Of which, the total debt for salaries and operations of the school, specifically the remaining part for January 2024, February 2024 and March 2024, is currently 48 billion VND. The total estimated operating cost of the school from April 2024 to June 2024 when cutting reasonable costs is 77 billion VND.

AISVN International School expects to collect VND121 billion in revenue, including VND4 billion in additional working capital for the investor. The school persuades parents to cover the cost of advanced IB, bus fees, facilities fees, annual tuition, and full-course tuition of VND47 billion; and persuades parents to support the collection of an average tuition fee based on the three-month listed tuition fee.

Calling on parents to contribute more money to keep the school operating until the end of the school year

The school calls on parents to contribute additional support money to solve financial difficulties. Depending on age and curriculum content, parents will pay according to the school's accounting department's estimate at different levels from 9.5 - 25 million VND/month.

Mr. Hieu suggested that parents should send a group to set up a new account, and send representatives from each grade.

"According to the above standards, I suggest that parents join hands to lighten the burden. If we reach an agreement today, the department will organize financial groups, together with the parents' representative committee, to operate periodic revenue and expenditure (paying teachers' salaries and necessary expenses) for the school to operate from now until the end of June 2024."

The Director of the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City also requested that from now until the end of the school year, only focus on essential expenses sufficient to operate the school (expenses for teachers, social insurance, costs of school transportation, teaching equipment, etc.).

"I want each grade and parent to elect a representative to join the financial management team from now until the end of the school year," Mr. Hieu emphasized.

Accordingly, this team will review whether the school's accounting expenses are appropriate, in the spirit of the departments' requirements to spend on the most practical contents to operate the school.

The professional team will work with the principal to calculate the number of students who agree to attend school to arrange classes and ensure teaching quality.

Meanwhile, many parents are upset and disagree with this proposal. "In fact, we have all paid billions to invest in the school so that our children can study. Many people have to borrow money from the bank to have money to pay for the school. If we don't have money to pay, will the school ban our children from studying anymore?", a group of parents were upset.

Many students of AISVN International School returned to school on the morning of March 19, but their parents had to pick them up early because the class lacked teachers - Photo: TRAN HUYNH

Why is the school having financial difficulties?

According to American International Education Joint Stock Company AIS, recently the company has encountered difficulties in management and operations due to financial difficulties, losses, and shortages of money.

The main reason is that the company has invested a large amount of money in building facilities and purchasing equipment for the school from the investor's capital and capital mobilized from parents.

Every year, the school regularly spends money to upgrade facilities and pay for the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, while the school has not collected these fees from parents for many years.

Every year the school spends a large amount of money on operating a free long-term bus route to pick up and drop off students.

With an expected capacity of about 4,000 students, the school has only recruited nearly half of that number.

In 2022 and 2023, interest rates on loan contracts and bond mobilization increased, leading to a sharp increase in the company's financial costs, combined with the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic, making the situation even more difficult due to a sharp decrease in revenue, while almost all costs remained unchanged (results shown through tax inspection results).

In addition, the company has absolutely no investment activities other than education. Due to unexpected difficulties, the company has temporarily lost liquidity in the short term, leading to late payment of teachers' salaries and late refunds to parents of students with investment cooperation contracts.

More than 84% of AISVN International School students want to continue studying at the school

According to the results of a survey of parents' opinions on the learning methods of AISVN International School, statistics up to 5:00 p.m. on March 29:

Total number of students wishing to continue studying at AISVN International School: 84.56%.

Total number of students wishing to transfer schools: 3.27%.

Total number of parents with other opinions: 5.1% (the vast majority of other opinions: parents want to ensure the commitments in the contract signed with the school).

Total number of parents who have not submitted the survey: 7.07%.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/vu-truong-quoc-te-aisvn-keu-goi-phu-huynh-gop-them-tien-de-truong-hoat-dong-202403301632327.htm