VietNamNet Bridge - Despite high tuition, private schools continue to attract Hanoi parents and their children because of their education quality. 

The Doan Thi Diem School, for example, enrolls 600 students every year in the first grade, but the number of applications is much higher. The Marie Curie Primary School enrolls 150 students and it sells application forms within one day.

The number of students registering to study at Vinschool education system is also higher than the number of students it plans to enroll. 

International schools, which require high tuition of VND500 million a year, reportedly receive more and more Vietnamese students in recent years (in Vietnam, those who have annual income of VND150 million a year are considered high income earners). Vietnamese students account for 15-20 percent of total students at the schools.

UNIS in Ciputra urban area has announced tuition of $25,860 (VND550 million) for 11th and 12th graders for the 2016-2017 academic year.

Despite high tuition, private schools continue to attract Hanoi parents and their children because of their education quality.

The Vietnam-Singapore International School requires tuition of VND140 million, which does not include surcharges.

Nguyen Xuan Khang, headmaster of Marie Curie School, said private schools attract students because they have good teaching staff, food facilities and can curricula.

Students have to pay VND10 million a month to study at Marie Curie, but they have six foreign language lessons a week, attend useful extracurricular activities and have optional lessons in music and art.

Dao Thi Thuy, deputy headmaster of Doan Thi Diem Primary School, said the school not only follows the curriculum set up by the Ministry of Education and Training, but also designs lessons on life skills, foreign language intensive programs and organizes learning clubs. 

The Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary & High School began offering application forms for the sixth grade on May 24. Though it rained heavily, hundreds of parents were still seen queuing in front of the school to buy forms. 

Nguyen Thi Van Anh, a parent in Hanoi, said that she wanted to enroll her daughter in Nguyen Tat Thanh Secondary School, though it is far from her home in Long Bien district.

“We plan to move to Nguyen Phong Sac street, near the school, if my daughter can enroll in the school,” she said. 

The parent refused to enroll her child in a state-owned school because the classes there are all overloaded.

“I know the tuition required by Nguyen Tat Thanh is higher than state-owned schools, but I hope my daughter can access new teaching methods there,” she said.

Ngoc Ha