Looking for Private/International school in Can Tho

THIGV wrote:

I may be absolutely wrong about this but I have never heard of a private school in Vietnam having school busses.  I personally knew one local student in HCM who, living in Thu Duc,  went to an international school in D-7 and took three city busses in each direction daily.

Its quite common, they dont use the large busses, but a fleet of mini busses. Even some language centres have their own mini busses.

colinoscapee wrote:

Its quite common, they dont use the large busses, but a fleet of mini busses. Even some language centres have their own mini busses.

Of course that explains why they are rather invisible to anyone just driving down the street.  I sure can't imagine motorbikes waiting patiently while a school bus stops.  People in HCM don't even get out of the way for ambulances with sirens on.   

THIGV wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Its quite common, they dont use the large busses, but a fleet of mini busses. Even some language centres have their own mini busses.

Of course that explains why they are rather invisible to anyone just driving down the street.  I sure can't imagine motorbikes waiting patiently while a school bus stops.  People in HCM don't even get out of the way for ambulances with sirens on.   

If you read the VN news, there recently was a death in a private school bus.

Coming back here after 6 years to give anyone whose read this a closure on this issue as I've seen quite a lot of expats moving to Can Tho lately and there might be a chance that they are scouting though this searching for some spark of information about the schooling.

Both kids are now back in the UK for University.

We ended up choosing the Vietnam America School (VASchools), not the best but is among the solid choice in Can Tho beside the Singapore School, there are some few more schools that opened but we didn't trust them enough to switch school.

At the Vietnam America school they taught mainly in Vietnamese, but there are quite a decent amount of foreign kids in primary and lower secondary classes, those whose couldn't speak Vietnamese got special after class Vietnamese tutor so that they can absorb the Vietnamese curriculum, they also got Cambridge Math, Science, English, Global something something enough to get by in term of Cambridge (Cambridge academic program, not the generic Cambridge english that are taught like those language center), my eldest at year 10 have to go to Saigon to registered as a private candidate for the GCSE exam, same with A Level in year 12 (We got online tutor for GCSE and A Level because to be honest the school mostly focus on Vietnamese classes and treated the Cambridge curriculum as a side so unless you want your kid to go full Vietnamese), also in year 12 all english lesson got reduced so they can focus on coaching the seniors the Vietnamese National exam, at this point my eldest attend the bare minimum while having online A level tutors, they allowed him some period off for self study the UK materials in the school library while the Vietnamese kids studied Vietnamese (obviously), the Vietnamese curriculum are somewhat a match to the A Level in subjects like Math, Physic, and Chemistry so my eldest took advantage of that since he knew Vietnamese enough, they also got after school club and sports though if you register for the school bus, you might have to skip since those activities start at 5 and the bus shuttle the kids home at 5:30.

The student body is mainly Vietnamese as expected for a small school in the province, but as mentioned earlier, quite a lot of foreign kids attending in the lower grades my youngest kid's class got 4 foreign kids so that he doesn't felt lonely only speaking English, the Vietnamese students can speak good English as well.

In term of facilities, they aren't the best but they are ok, library that is very modest, science lab, computer lab, sport facilities like foot ball field, basket ball, badminton, a good swimming pool (although only primary student can have access to the poll because it's shallow, mostly to teach the kiddo swimming so no leisure swim there), overall don't expect Saigon level of facility.

About the teachers, they're nice, the Vietnamese faculties are quite supportive, though miscommunications happened because language barrier but most of the local staff spoke some English, though during parents meeting they got the Foreign faculties to sat next to the Foreign parents as translator as the homeroom teacher only speak in Vietnamese for the other Vietnamese parents, and the Foreign staff are also nice to chat to, around 8 maybe 10 Foreign teachers for the whole school year 1-12, some guy whose taught upper secondary Math for year 10-11 have to go and teach the year 1-5 kids phonetics, so pretty close knit haha, also some of the teachers come and go so not all stick around, maybe except for Lorenzo (I forgot his name sorry), Martin, and a bald guy that teaches high school english (sorry forgot your name since you're Scandinavian and I can't read the words from there) that stayed since first came to the school.

Around 2 years ago their Saigon campus got Cambridge International School accredidation, the Can Tho campus doesn't yet but I think they soon will as they have been upgrading facilities and adding more English classes I assume is to meet the expectation for the accredidation.

That's my overall review, I hope you found a decent school for your kid when you live in Can Tho, home schooling is an option if you have the time, but I still recommend a physical school so your kids can mingle with other kids because well, they're kids, they need play mates and friendships.

Cheers.

@Victor Hasting

hello, in your initial post you mentioned your worries about how expensive the international schools are. At the end, how much was the cost in the scools your children studied? Thanks in advance

@ajairon

Hi, at the time my family were just wrapping up and moving to Can Tho with a bit of uncertainty so money were a bit tight, but as we settle down things gets easier for us.

The cost of schooling, excluding online tutoring, was roughly 80–110 million VND (around US$3,000–4,300 or £2,200–3,000) per child per year, give or take. This included tuition, school meals, uniforms, textbooks, and other miscellaneous expenses like field trips, exam fees, and snacks from the cafeteria.

They have a website link but it's in Vietnamese for some reason so a bit hard for non-speakers: [link under review]/

Scroll down till you see the "Học Phí" (tuition) section.

Some break down:

Tuition and meals: For Year 6, tuition and meals came to around 60 million VND per year, while Year 10 was around 70 million VND per year. This was a few years ago, and tuition tends to increase over time, as it does at many private schools, so you can check the current fees through the link above.

Uniforms: Around 2.5 million VND per child for three sets of formal uniforms and two sets of PE uniforms. This was back then, so it may cost more now.

School buses: A bus that picked up the kids directly from our house cost around 2 million VND per month. Alternatively, if you take your kids to designated pickup locations, the bus costs around 500,000 VND per month, we choose the cheaper option as we live near a pickup location so the kids walk.

Textbooks and stationery: Vietnamese textbooks depend on the grade, but you can usually find the full set at local bookstores for around 500,000–800,000 VND. I don't remember the exact details, as my wife handled most of the shopping.

Cambridge textbooks for subjects like English, Maths, and Science can cost over a million VND, depending on the grade and the books required.

Stationery depends on how much your child uses, but it's quite affordable. Notebooks cost around 15,000–30,000 VND, while pens are around 10,000–20,000 VND each (less than a dollar or pound).

Field trips: These depend on the year and destination. Trips within the city usually cost around 300,000–600,000 VND per child, per trip. Some museum visits and park tours are free, while amusement parks and similar destinations cost extra.

For multi-day trips, such as a trip to Đà Lạt, the cost is usually around 2–3 million VND per child. These trips are optional. Overseas trips are also optional, and the cost depends on the destination.

Clubs and extracurricular activities: Clubs are generally free, although you may need to provide your own equipment for sports clubs, such as badminton, tennis, or pickleball. For art clubs, the school provides materials like canvases and paint. For dance and martial arts clubs, you may need to purchase uniforms.

Online tutoring: For GCSEs and A Levels, we enrolled the kids in online tutoring, which cost around US$700 per subject per month. We didn't have tutors every month, though, only when the kids requested them, usually a few months before major exams. Most of the time, they were able to study independently.

That's all that comes to mind for now. If you want to know anything specific, feel free to ask, and I'll try to remember and give you an answer.

Cheers.

@ajairon

My reply above was for the city of Can Tho, I noticed that you moved to Gia Lai, if you're settling in Gia Lai then minus the tutoring, the cost of schooling there can be 2/3 or even less than Can Tho, there's also a reputational private school there, Asia Pacific College Gia Lai, though from what I heard from friends, almost all the students are locals and there are very few English Classes.

Hi everyone.

I’m currently looking for a school where I can send my children (year 6 and year 10) to learn both Vietnamese and English.

I’ve noticed some schools like Vaschools, Pacific College, Peace International School and the Singapore School and most of them (except the Singapore school) teaches Vietnamese MOET in the morning and Cambridge CEFR in the evening (or at least seem like it), the Singapore school is out of reach for me in term of tuition and fees (more than 200 million vnd/yr repeat for 2 child that wouldn’t do). And is there any more option beside those school mentioned above? If so then hook me up if not then out of the bunch which one would you recommend? - @Victor Hasting

'International school' is a title that is often used, but is not always accurate.

CEFR is the common European framework for reference (for language)  is used by Cambridge,  but it doesn't tell you about the school.

The questions to ask are:

Does the school teach first or second language English?

Do they conduct primary checkpoint in grade 6 , and is it 0057 or 0058?

For grade 10, do they have IGCSE, is the English first or second language, and how many subjects do they hold exams in?

For 11 and 12, do they have A level courses, and in how many subjects?

What is their Cambridge centre number?

A bad sign for an international school is having Cambridge English assessment (Starters, Movers, Flyers, and so on. These are good if the school has English speaking and listening courses,  but not for general use in a 0058 school.

As a guide, pupils should be at CEFR B2 for Primary Checkpoint.

Weak schools will expect CEFR A2 by grade 6, but that level will see scores of around 10/50 in a 0058 English examination.

@Fred

Our school is a bit of a weird one, their main campus in Ho Chi Minh City is CAIE accredited, it's VN721 on the Find a Cambridge School directory, they do offer the primary checkpoint, IGCSE, and A Levels, though students in Can Tho have to travel to Ho Chi Minh to take the exam and subjects are limited because there are few foreign kids and most of the Vietnamese kids focus on the Vietnamese curriculum, this is also a small school in the province so a lot of the students just want to go to Vietnamese universities and you get the idea.

They ran the typical Vietnamese in the morning period and English in the afternoon period, iirc their lower secondary checkpoint they got English (second language I believe), Math, and Science, there are also Computing and Global Perspectives but Computing is combined with the Vietnamese curriculum and Global Perspectives are offered and they got the text books in the library but no running class. IGCSE and A Levels are where things get tricky as at the time of my kids enrollment there are very few demands and the foreign kids either transfered to Ho Chi Minh city or just locked in the Vietnamese curriculum as it got more support, but the few that decided to follow the Cambridge curriculum (they have to also do the Vietnamese curriculum as well) it's the same 3 course English, Math, Science (combined physic and chemistry), optional they got Business Studies, Computer Science, and another course which I forgot the name of, if you forgoes Cambridge, you got the IELTS class and most Vietnamese student choose this path.

Recently the school started to expand to get the accreditation for the Can Tho campus to become a Cambridge School so they can focus on having 2 stream of program Vietnamese and IGCSE/A level separately instead of the cluster f of a mixed up like now.