American International School Vietnam suspends operations for another year

HCM CITY – The American International School Vietnam (AISVN) will remain closed for another 12 months starting July 1.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training and an interdisciplinary team from the city have been working with the school board and AISVN investors since May 28.

A report on the school, which was due by June 15 and could have enabled classes to continue, has not yet been received by the Ministry of Education.

On March 18 this year, all classes were cancelled when a large portion of the school’s teaching staff went on strike over unpaid salaries. Nearly 90 of them resigned within the next two days.

Since April, more than 134 AISVN students have been transferred to other schools to continue their education.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training has worked with 18 secondary schools with foreign investment or foreign curriculum programs, as well as the Việt Nam Australia International School (a public school under the management of the Ministry), to identify intake capacity and support policies for students wishing to transfer from AISVN.

On June 28, the Department also published Official Notice No. 4011/SGDĐT-GDTrH with transfer guidelines for AISVN students through the website https://chuyentruong.hcm.edu.vn.

AIS American International Education JSC, the main investor of AISVN, must assume responsibility towards its students as well as teaching and administrative staff.

The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training said the company must take appropriate measures to ensure students’ right to education and uninterrupted learning.

In addition, the company must ensure the benefits agreed in the contracts with employees and comply with the legal provisions regarding the employment of foreign workers.

In September last year, many parents gathered outside the school to protest, saying they had signed interest-free loan agreements worth billions of dong at AISVN so that their children can be exempted from official tuition fees.

However, when their children completed the program or transferred to another school, they did not receive the reimbursement provided for in their contracts.

A representative of AISVN said that in the past the company had always repaid its investments on time, but recently there had been delays in payments due to difficult circumstances.

The Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City requested a report from AISVN to assess whether the school is suitable for educational operations in accordance with the Education Law of 2019 and Decree 46/2017/NĐ-CP on Regulations for Investments and Operations in the Education Sector.

AISVN is a private educational institution with only local investors. Before its closure, the school had more than 1,200 students in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, 129 foreign teachers, 26 Vietnamese teachers and 103 staff members. — VNS