Choosing between state-owned and international schools

A lot of well-to-do families want to send their children to international schools. However, they fear that the high tuition levels will be a heavy burden. 

 After two years at Asia-Pacific International School, Thanh’s son will go to a state-owned school. Thanh cannot afford the tuition, which has multiplied. Though Thanh and his wife earn tens of millions of dong a month and are considered as high income earners, he still finds it hard to pay the school’s tuition, nearly 100 million dong per year. “To study at an international school, you need several billion dong in your bank account,” Thanh estimated, complaining that his business now is not really good and it is very difficult to earn money. “I foresee as time when I cannot earn enough money for the boy to continue studying there until he graduates. Therefore, we have decided to quit,” he explained.

Thanh stressed that he has no other choice, even though he really wants his child to attend an international school. “We must quit now, or it will be too late. If the boy leaves international schools after more years, he will not be able to catch up with his friends in a state-owned school,” he speculated. Thanh is quite right to worry. In general, state-owned schools follow much heavier curricula that international schools.

Many students from international schools lag behind at state-owned schools. Thanh doesn’t mind bringing his son to a state-owned school. “I can see a lot of students who can succeed in their lives even though they graduated from normal state-owned schools. In theory, students can still study abroad later.

Everything will depend on his learning ability,” he remarked. Thuong, HCM City, has also decided that her daughter will leave her international school after just one year. At first, she decided to send the girl to an international school, so that she could gain good foreign language skills to serve her well later, when she goes abroad to study at a foreign university. To pay tuition, Thuong sold the land she inherited from parents.

Now Thuong and her husband now must reconsider international school. Every month, they must pay 6.5 million dong total for tuition. The sum of money, according to Thuong, is 10 times higher than for their older child, who attends a state-owned school. “I have heard that tuition will increase further in the next school year. Therefore, we have decided to leave the school,” Thuong revealed. “If she keeps studying there, we may have to sell our house to pay her tuition.”The debate over state-owned versus international schools is a popular question of many parents on education forums, especially when the new school year will start soon.

One parent wrote on an online education forum that, in some cases, it is not really good to send children to international schools, complaining about teacher qualifications, material facilities and other conditions. “The conditions are quite different from what the school advertised,” she lamented. “I actually do not know where to take my child. I want my child to go to an international school, but I’m afraid I cannot afford overly-high tuitions.

Meanwhile, I don’t want my child to go to Hoa Binh state-owned school,” another mother worried. Representative of a famous international school in HCM City told VnExpress that tuition will increase by 10 percent. Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh, Headmaster of International Private School, also confirmed that tuition will increase by 100,000-200,000 dong in the next school year

Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/education/201007/Choosing-between-stateowned-and-international-schools-925505/