VAS – Where the best becomes better

VAS – Where the best becomes better

Providing world-standard education services at an affordable tuition fee level to many Vietnamese parents, the Vietnam Australia International School is contributing to improve the quality of human resources in Vietnam. Linh Mai writes.

This August, Nghiem Phu Hai – a pupil of grade 12 with a nick name of “a million-dollar boy” at the Vietnam Australia International School (VAS) – will head the US for studying economics at the Denison University. He became a famous student at VAS when winning scholarships and financial aids worth more than $1 million from 10 prestigious American colleges and universities at the same time.

Leaving Hanoi for Ho Chi Minh City with his family, Hai started his study at VAS from grade 9. He said the education environment at VAS, with dedicated and well-qualified teachers and modern teaching approaches, played an important role in helping him enhance knowledge, honing life skills and of course winning the scholarships.

With high-quality educational services, VAS is step-by-step strengthening its reputation by training good students like Hai.

Quality is core

Established in 2004 and licensed by the Vietnamese government, VAS is a private school group within the national education system offering a K–12 education programme. At present, VAS is offering educational services to some 4,500 students from K through 12 at six campuses in Ho Chi Minh City.

Unlike other business, education is a very special business when investors building a school system to train people, and the result is the success of students studying at the school. As a private school group, the board of directors at VAS understands that they can only success in Vietnam by providing high-quality educational services to train good students in the country.

Therefore, they set the core mission for VAS which is to train an elite young Vietnamese generation to become knowledgeable young people comparable with their counterparts in developed countries, deeply rooted in traditional cultural values, possessing practical life skills and having a positive outlook on life.

In addition, VAS also helps student have a sense of responsibility as a global citizen with all the confidence to integrate into the world education system, that was proved through the success of Hai.

By then end of 2013, VAS rolled out three mega-campuses with excellent facilities including gymnastics, huge play-grounds and swimming pools which further enhanced its competitive position.

Building Vietnam’s skilled workers

In a country where the education system is still underdeveloped like Vietnam, resulting in the shortage of well-trained human resources, what VAS does is really significant to contribute to the country’s development.

“We are happy with all the investments VAS has made to offer a quality education network to Vietnam’s young generation which responds well to the needs of both parents and students,” said Pham Vu Thanh Giang, director of Mekong Capital, a private equity investor in VAS.

The globalisation-oriented knowledge economy of the 21st century requires education to be always creative, using new approaches and new tools to equip students with a solid academic background and the confidence to integrate into the world of education.

At VAS, its training philosophy and approaches are encouraging student to exploit all their best, through close cooperation between school, family and society in addition to the cooperation among students themselves and between them and their teachers.

In order to develop fully, students need to have practical experiences to raise awareness and improve problem-solving skills through life skills to form a background for their lifelong pursuit of knowledge.

At VAS, each teacher is a designer, counselor, supporter and provider of learning experiences that help students put their creativity and critical thinking to use, in order to make well-informed decisions with a positive attitude and a sense of responsibility.

According to Giang, what makes VAS different from other bilingual schools in Vietnam is that VAS has been pioneer in offering the Cambridge International Curriculum for primary and secondary in an integrated bilingual curriculum from grades 1 to 12, in addition to Vietnamese national curriculum.

Last year, VAS officially became a member of the Cambridge School Associate Certified by the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE). Accordingly, from the academic year 2013-2014, VAS provided students in Vietnam programmes and academic certificates of Cambridge including Cambridge Primary Checkpoint, Secondary Checkpoint, IGCSE and AS.

CIE, which is the largest educational organisation in the world, offers international academic programmes and certificates for students from 5 to 19 years old. This organisation is a member of the University of Cambridge, one of the leading universities in the world famous for its excellent quality of education. Cambridge programmes and certificates are present in over 9,000 schools in more than 160 countries.

“We are delighted to inform that VAS has joined the Cambridge community worldwide. We look forward to a long-term and effective cooperation for the benefits of students in the region with Cambridge academic programmes,” Michael O'Sullivan, chief executive officer of CIE, said last year when VAS became a member of Cambridge School Associate Certified.

With some 400 teachers teaching the national programme by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam and some 200 teachers trained and certified to teach the Cambridge International Programme, the school offers three choices for students from grade 9.

The first choice is the international programme to prepare for the International Cambridge A Level. The second choice is the bilingual programme to get the baccalaureate diploma by the Ministry of Education and Training and the secondary school graduation certificate and English certificates. And the last is the bilingual integration programme to get the baccalaureate diploma by the Ministry of Education and Training and English certificates. With any choice, the students at VAS are also fully equipped with knowledge, skills and confidence to get ready for higher learning.

With a modern teaching approach and quality education service, VAS believes in the next ten years it will be strengthening, step by step, its position in the non-public educational community nationwide and beyond, reaching out to gain recognition as one of the more advanced schools in the region in the context of global educational integration.

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