the academic year in vietnam

Education in Vietnam is a state-run system of public and private education run by the Ministry of Education and Training. It is divided into five levels: preschool, primary school, secondary school, high school, and higher education. Formal education consists of twelve years of basic education. Basic education consists of five years of primary education, four years of secondary education, and three years of high school education. The majority of basic education students are enrolled on a daily b A new school year ceremony has been held at the Vietnamese language class in Kiev, Ukraine, aiming to preserve national cultural values. VNA Thursday, September 07, 2017 14:39 Related News The programme built on the 1981-1986 pilot student exchanges, and although it was formally adopted only shortly before the beginning of the academic year 1987-1988, it was still possible for 3,244 students to participate in Erasmus in its first year. President Nguyen Xuan Phuc beat the drum to kick off the new 2022-2023 academic year at the High School for Gifted Students under the Vietnam National University (VNU)'s Hanoi University of Science (HUS) on September 5. In the year 2022, thousands of people get trapped in a. minutes of meeting template Deku basically has 'Doomsdays' powers from DC comics Skeleton: The quirk user can harden and take out parts of their body and use them as weapons or tools it: izuku a hero My academia with is only fanfiction Eijiro Kirishima, also known as the Sturdy Hero: Red Site De Rencontre Gratuit Non Payant En Belgique. Important dates for RMIT Vietnam students in a year. Key dates for students in each program are different. Please select your program and download the academic calendar for 2023 below. Higher education English Foundation Studies At RMIT Vietnam, there are three semesters per academic year for Higher Education students. Semester 1 2023 3 Mar Tuition Fee Invoices for Semester 1, 2023 issued 6 Mar Semester 1, 2023 begins 17 Mar Last date for enrolment variations without penalty fee 24 Mar Deadline for payment of tuition fees 31 Mar Deadline for enrolment variations and LOA applications 17, 18 & 21 Apr Graduation events 28 Apr Final date for withdrawal from courses or LOA without academic penalty 22 May Enrolment of new students for Semester 2, 2023 begins 16 Jun Application Deadline. No applications accepted for Semester 2, 2023 after this date 19 Jun Results released Semester 2 2023 30 Jun Tuition Fee Invoices for Semester 2, 2023 issued 3 Jul Semester 2, 2023 begins 14 Jul Last date for enrolment variations without penalty fee 21 Jul Deadline for payment of tuition fees 28 Jul Deadline for enrolment variations and LOA applications 25 Aug Final date for withdrawal from courses or LOA without academic penalty 18 Sep Enrolment of new students for Semester 3, 2023 begins 13 Oct Application Deadline. No applications accepted for Semester 3, 2023 after this date 16 Oct Results released Semester 3 2023 27 Oct Tuition Fee Invoices for Semester 3, 2023 issued 30 Oct Semester 3, 2023 begins 10 Nov Last date for enrolment variations without penalty fee 17 Nov Deadline for payment of tuition fees 24 Nov Deadline for enrolment variations and LOA applications 22 Dec Final date for withdrawal from courses or LOA without academic penalty 02 Jan Re-enrolment of continuing students for 2024 begins 22 Jan Enrolment of new students for Semester 1, 2024 begins 23 Feb Application Deadline. No applications accepted for Semester 1, 2024 after this date 23 Feb Last date for re-enrolment for continuing students without penalty fee 19 Feb Results released You may also be interested in You may also be interested in HANOI, December 22, 2022 – The Embassy in Vietnam is pleased to announce the Fulbright Vietnamese Student Scholarship Program. This scholarship will cover fees related to tuition, round-trip airfare to the United States, a monthly stipend, and health insurance. Established in 1946 and funded by the Congress, the Fulbright Program aims to advance mutual understanding through academic and cultural exchange and this year marks a special milestone of 30 years of Fulbright in Vietnam. The Fulbright Vietnamese Student Program is a competitive, merit-based scholarship program. Successful candidates will pursue a Master’s degree program that begins in the academic year 2024-2025. Competition is open to all applicants who meet the following minimum criteria hold Vietnamese citizenship and reside in Vietnam throughout the application and selection process dual citizenship not permitted; have at least two years of work experience after graduation by the time of their application; and have a valid minimum TOEFL iBT score of 79 or IELTS or PTE-Academic 58 or Duolingo 105. Diverse candidates are encouraged to apply. The Program supports Master’s degree programs in most fields of social sciences and humanities, including but not limited to American Studies, Communications, Education, Economics, Business, Law, International Relations, Journalism, Library Science, Public Administration, Social Work, Public Health, Public Policy, TESOL, Gender and Women Studies, etc. To participate in the competition, applicants must apply online at A complete online application package includes an application form, three letters of reference, diplomas and transcripts including notarized English translations, TOEFL/IELTS/PTE/Duolingo score reports, and a curriculum vitae. The deadline of application submission is 500 April 17, 2023 Vietnam time. Details can be found on the Fulbright web site at Instructors with a or with a Masters’s and three years of post-secondary teaching experience can get a university teaching job in instructors in Vietnam work long hours during the two semesters of the academic year April-July and September-January. They often juggle two or three part-time jobs and face long commutes between campuses. However, emphasizes that the students are great, and the long, paid breaks between semesters leave plenty of time to recuperate. Experience and Qualifications for University Teaching in Vietnam A or a Masters degree and three years of experience teaching college or university courses, ars required Academic publications and conference presentations are required Candidates already residing in Vietnam are often preferred Vietnamese language proficiency is recommended Find out more about Getting a Vietnam Visa Contracts and Salary Expectations for Foreign Instructors at Vietnamese Universities Initially, most instructors will be hired on a part-time basis. The average pay is about $27-$30 per hour. At Vietnamese universities, a teaching session is 90 minutes long. For every 90-minute lesson, an instructor usually gets paid for the entire two hours. This means that an instructor can make about $54-$60 per lesson. This fee includes preparation and travel time. In addition, all employers in Vietnam reimburse travel expenses. For reference, you can also check out Living Costs in Vietnam. Most contracts are for one year. Part-time instructors are paid their full salary for twelve months, from April to March. After submitting their grades at the end of the semester, part-time instructors are not expected to do any work during the six-week summer vacation and the eight-week winter break. Read more about How to Get a Work Permit in Vietnam. Full-time contracts are available but are usually reserved for candidates with PhDs and\or extensive teaching, research, and publishing experience. The salary for these contracts is much higher than for part-timers. Full-time instructors may be required to do research, committee, and administrative work during the breaks between semesters. There is one significant drawback to full-time positions for foreigners an increasing number of Vietnamese universities place a limit on the number of times a full-time contract may be renewed. Instructors are allowed to stay at those universities for a maximum of 5 years. Types of Classes for Foreign Instructors at Vietnamese Universities English oral communication is the main subject taught by foreign instructors. Other courses include writing and reading, test preparation TOEFL or TOEIC, business English, and academic skills. Some Vietnamese universities ask foreign instructors to teach specialty non-ESL courses, particularly those related to International Relations or the culture and literature of various countries. Instructors wishing to teach these classes should have a relevant post-graduate degree. Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, French, and German are some other popular second languages in Vietnam taught by foreigners in Vietnam. How to Find and Apply for Positions at Vietnamese Universities One of the most comprehensive sites about teaching at Vietnamese colleges and universities is the Association for Language Teaching job board. Networking opportunities abound at the annual symposium. Instructors who do not have post-graduate degrees or enough post-secondary teaching experience can start by exploring recruitment agencies. Many of these intermediary employers have contracts with colleges and universities. Getting a university teaching job in Vietnam requires a lot of leg work, but it’s a fulfilling experience for foreigners who wish to spend two or more years in Vietnam. AbstractThis paper is motivated by the ongoing debate on university reform in Vietnam. In particular, there is a need to quantify the level of governmental support for public universities and examine whether or not such a support is adequate. To this end, the present paper estimates training costs per student in different disciplines within the Vietnamese public university education system in 2010. The various estimates of unit costs are based on the definitional approach which defines unit cost as the ratio of total costs over output. In measuring total costs, private costs incurred by university students apart from formal tuition fees are excluded. Further, the opportunity cost method employed emphasizes implicit costs such as imputed land rent. The total output is based on weighted student numbers. Unit costs are then estimated using a variety of primary from survey and secondary data sources. The results obtained suggest that the unit costs of public university education in Vietnam vary considerably between disciplines. The results also support the presence of economies of scale and scope in higher education and a negative relationship between unit costs and teaching quality proxies. The overall unit cost of public universities in Vietnam is very low in absolute terms when comparing with other countries. However, unit cost relative to GDP per capita in Vietnam is more comparable with those of neighboring countries. Nevertheless, the findings of the paper imply that more resources need to be allocated to the public university sector as part of an urgently needed university reform in Vietnam. Access options Buy single article Instant access to the full article PDF. 39,95 € Price includes VAT Ukraine Fig. 1Source MOET 2014aFig. 2Source MOET 2014aFig. 3Source MOET 2014aFig. 4Source OECD 2011, Chart p. 239Fig. 5 aFig. 6 NotesABC is a costing method that identifies all activities in an organization a university in this case and assigns the cost of each activity to all products and services students in this case according to the actual consumption by each are educational institutions and not businesses although in some limited ways universities run like a business. In a competitive market, profit-maximizing firms sell a private good to many buyers who are willing and able to pay for the product. University education is not a usual private good. It is a process of human capital accumulation analogous to physical capital investment. It has some properties of a public good, and it generates positive externalities. It is a service that students direct buyers do not decide for themselves, especially in the case of Vietnam. It is an intermediate good that the ultimate buyers are the consumers or the population. The relationship between teachers and students is not the same as that between sellers and buyers in a competitive market. Universities aim to achieve specific non-commercial targets, not profit maximization. Public universities cannot freely set their fees and select their student numbers. Universities, whether public or private, do not allocate students to different programs by students’ willingness and ability to pay alone. The government also often intervenes in the university sector in many visible assumption is essential to our empirical analysis of multidisciplinary universities. The assumption of cost ratio uniformity can be justified in the context of Vietnam’s public universities. The public university sector is tightly regulated by the Vietnamese government in terms of uniform staff/student ratio for each discipline, salaries, tuition fees, core subjects, etc. Further, public universities tend to employ highly similar combination of inputs in delivering their education has conducted universities survey in 2011 to collect financial information of 60 public universities between 2009 and 2011. Among 60 surveyed universities, 24 universities are managed by MOET, 20 universities are from other ministries, four universities are national universities, and the other 12 universities are managed by Provincial People’s Committees. The data are categorized into four groups, namely staff and faculty group number of teaching hours, number of publications and papers, student group number of students per class, number of students per high-quality class, financial information group revenues, expenditures, usage of state budget, tuition fee and facilities information group total land area, total floor space, number of computers.In a well-cited, large-scale study on survey response rates, Baruch and Holtom 2008 1140 found that the average response rate for studies that utilized data collected from organizations was percent with a standard deviation of Y., & Holtom, B. C. 2008. Survey response rate levels and trends in organizational research. Human Relations, 618, 1140– Google Scholar Bennett, S. 2011. Higher Education Teaching and Learning Costs. Canberra Deloitte Access Economics. Google Scholar Brovender, S. 1974. On the economics of a university toward the determination of the marginal cost of teaching services. 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Mimeo Department of Economics, Macquarie University. Google Scholar Heaton, C. & Throsby, C. D. 1997. Cost functions for Australian universities A survey of results with implications for policy, Discussion Paper 360 Part 2, Centre for Economic Policy Research, The Australian National Education Financing Council for England. 2010. Review of the Subject Price Groups Using TRACT Data Detailed Commentary. Retrieved June 1, 2012, from HEFCE Data & Statistics H. M. 1981. Cost analysis. In N. Smith Ed., New techniques for evaluation. Beverly Hills Sage. Google Scholar Levin, H. M., & McEwan, P. J. 2001. Cost-effectiveness analysis Methods and applications 2nd ed.. Thousand Oaks Sage. Google Scholar Lloyd, P. J., Morgan, M. H., & Williams, R. A. 1993. Amalgamations of universities are there economies of scale or scope? Applied Economics, 258, 1081– Google Scholar Maelah, R., Amir, A. M., Ahmad A., & Auzair, S. M. 2011. Cost per student using ABC approach A case study. 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PPP conversion factor, GDP LCU per international $. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from World Bank Data Bank. b. Official exchange rate LCU per US$, period average. Retrieved August 24, 2015, from World Bank Data referencesAuthor informationAuthors and AffiliationsCenter for Economic Development Studies, VNU University of Economics and Business, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 144 Xuan Thuy Road, Cau Giay District, Hanoi, VietnamVu Thang PhamSchool of Taxation and Business Law, UNSW Sydney, Kensington, NSW, 2052, AustraliaBinh Tran-NamSchool of Business and Management, RMIT University Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, VietnamBinh Tran-NamAuthorsVu Thang PhamYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarBinh Tran-NamYou can also search for this author in PubMed Google ScholarCorresponding authorCorrespondence to Vu Thang informationPublisher's NoteSpringer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional paper is derived from a capacity building project commissioned by the Higher Education Project 2 HEP2 of Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training MOET. The authors are grateful to many individuals and organizations for their valuable assistance in making this project possible. The authors would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers whose valuable comments result in vast improvement of the paper. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of any institutions with which they are Survey instrumentAppendix Survey instrument Questionnaires Note Data collected for this questionnaire are the statistical data for the whole university including in joint training activities in other locations managed by the university I. General information 1. Name of university…………………………………………………………………… ………………… 2. Governing organization/ministry…………………………………………………… ………… 3. Is the university willing to participate in a direct interview? $$ {\text{O}}\;{\text{ Yes}}\;\;\;\;\;\;{\text{ O}}\;{\text{ No}} $$ 4. Is the university willing to participate in the workshop for reporting survey results?$$ {\text{O}}\;{\text{ Yes}}\;\;\;\;\;\;{\text{ O}}\;{\text{ No}} $$ Please give information on university’s representatives who will participate in the workshop priority to two senior officers from the university Representative 1Representative 2Full name Position Mobile Email 5. The starting year of bachelor’s degree student enrollment…………………………. 6. The degree of financial autonomy of the university? $$ {\text{O Autonomy 1}}00\% \, \;\;\;\;\;\;{\text{O Partial autonomy}} $$ 7. Please list information on land use rights by the university excluding rent land at 31/12/2010 area m2Location district, provinceLocation 1 Location 2 Location 3 Location 4 … Total 8. Total area of university’s buildings by time period? o Building area before 1990……………………………………………………… ………………. m2 o Building area during 1991–2000……………………………………………… ……………… m2 o Building area after 2000……………………………………………………… …………………. m2 9. In 2010, number of computers for students? By Faculty of Information Technology if any and other faculties Before 20082008–2010Faculty of Information Technology if any Other faculties Total 10. How many additional computers for students should the university equip to ensure educational quality? How much to purchase these additional computers? Additional computersExpected expense mil. VNDFaculty of Information Technology if any Other faculties 11. Total number of book titles in the university library in 2010 is…………………. With the number of students as in 2010, how many additional book titles should the university purchase to increase educational quality?………………….. book titles. Estimated expense for purchasing these additional book titles is…………………. mil. VND 12. Do students have rights to use international and internal electronic database for studying? $$ {\text{O}}\;{\text{ Yes}}\;\;\;\;\;\;\;{\text{ O}}\;{\text{ No}} $$ If yes, the number of these database sources in 2010 is……………………….. Total expense for purchasing the license of these sources in 2010 is ………………….. mil. VND. 13. Number of articles published in scientific journals from full-time teachers and staff in the university in 2010 o National scientific journal ……………..………………………………………………… o International scientific journal.….….……………………………………………….. o Patents ….……….….…………………………………………………………… …………. According to the university, at least how many articles published in scientific journals do each full-time teacher write to increase the educational quality? o Prof./Ass. Prof.…………………………………………………………..articles/person/ year o Dr./Senior teacher………………………………………………………articles/person/ year o Other teachers…………………………………………………………….articles/person/ year 14. If the university receives additional 5% 10%, 15% of the state budget for formal undergraduate training expenditures in 2013, which areas will the university give priority to spending more on to improve the educational quality? Priorities are listed in descending order + 5%+ 10%+ 15%Priority 1 Priority 2 Priority 3 Priority 4 Priority 5 15. If the university receives less than 5% 10%, 15% of the state budget for formal undergraduate training expenditures in 2013, which areas will the university give priority to spending less? Priorities are listed in descending order + 5%+ 10%+ 15%Priority 1 Priority 2 Priority 3 Priority 4 Priority 5 16. How many first year students and classes were there in 2010? Differentiate by regular’ and high-quality’ programs, in which the latter means advanced/high quality/talented/taught in English or similar programsNote Fill all the available disciplines in 2010 17. Total equivalent teaching hours Note Use the conversion rates which are in use by the university 2nd semester2009–20101st semester2010–2011Permanent teachers Guest teachers II. FINANCIAL INFORMATION 18. Total revenue in 2010 dongs1State budget funding including National Targeted Program In which Funding on recurrent expenditure Funding on researches Funding on capital expenditure Funding for other state-assigned tasks survey, environment protection tasks, marine-islands protection tasks, etc. 2Tuition and fees 3Teaching support 4Revenue from other education services general education, entrance examination preparation, professional short courses, etc. 5Revenue from cooperation with foreigner programs 6Other revenues TOTAL REVENUE 19. Total expenditure in 2010 dongs1Recurrent expenditure from all sources mentioned in Question 177 In which expenditure including salaries, wages, allowances, remunerations to local people and expatriates, bonuses, welfares, contributions, other payment to people, extra-teaching payments, thesis introduction, administrative management, etc. to students expenditure public service payment, stationeries, communication, seminars, per diems, rents, repairs, etc. on large purchases and repairs of fixed assets such as automobile, equipment… if any from current expenditure funding expenditure on other education services if any general education, entrance examination preparation, professional short courses, etc. recurrent expenditure 2Capital expenditure 3Other expenditure Total expenditure 20. Depreciation of fixed assets calculated from 1/1/2010 to 31/12/2010 is………………… mil. VND. 21. In 2010, what percentage of current expenditure for regular undergraduate students did revenue from tuition and fees of these students meet for?………………. percent. 22. Total procurement of fixed assets excluding building construction during 2006–2010 mil. VND 23. Total expenditure for research activities by full-time teachers and staff in the university in 2010 o National……………………………………………………..mil. VND o International….…………………………………………..mil. VND 24. Estimated cost/revenue ratio of training services secondary education, college exam preparation, professional training, short training… in 2010 is……….. percent. 25. Does the university have building and internal roads over 50 years of age? $$ {\text{O}}\;{\text{ Yes}}\;\;\;\;\;\;\;{\text{ O}}\;{\text{ No}} $$ If yes, how much is estimated value of this construction?……………………….. mil. VND. 26. About information on students, teaching staff, facilities and building, the university is recommended to offer period statistical reports for DPF-MOET in the schooling year of 2009–2010 and 2010–2011 Tables 2, and 6. Please send this questionnaire via postal mail, fax or email address xxxxx The research team would like to thank you for your cooperation!Rights and permissionsAbout this articleCite this articlePham, Tran-Nam, B. Estimating unit cost of public university education in Vietnam. Educ Res Policy Prac 20, 279–305 2021. citationReceived 12 February 2019Accepted 03 September 2020Published 28 September 2020Issue Date October 2021DOI costUnit costEconomies of scaleEconomies of scopeUniversity reformVietnam How Will Vietnam Schools Open For 2020-21? By Carli Allan By Carli Allan First Published Tuesday 11 August, 2020 Updated 10th Aug 2022 Do your children attend a Vietnam school? Take our survey and help other parents. WhichSchoolAdvisor's annual school survey. LET'S GO By Carli Allan First Published Tuesday 11 August, 2020 Updated 10th Aug 2022 It’s back to school for many students worldwide this month. After the long summer holiday, Vietnam’s international schools will welcome students back onto campus this week with strict health and safety measures in place. Internationally, schools are responding to the Covid-19 pandemic using various models of reopening depending on local infection rates. Some schools impose strict social distancing limits between students, while others allow them to mix freely. Some require all staff and students to wear masks, while others make this optional. And some schools are open to every student every day, while others will teach groups of students on alternate days. So, how is Vietnam bringing children back to school? Vietnam was one of the first countries to reopen its schools – and schools across the country, including in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, reopened for classes from May 4 but in gradual phases. International schools including Renaissance International School Saigon pictured above are following strict health and safety measures. Now, as students return for the start of the 2020-21 academic year, WhichSchoolAdvisor answers all your questions on how schools will reopen, what to expect for the year ahead, and how Vietnam compares to other countries. Read more Top Tips For Back to School All students must wear their masks at the International School of Vietnam How Will Schools Reopen? Q. Will all staff and students be tested for Covid-19 ? A No, there is no mandatory test for staff and students. Countries are taking different approaches to testing within schools. In the UK, for example, all schools and colleges will be provided with a small number of home testing kits for children or staff who develop symptoms while on campus; in Abu Dhabi in the UAE, all staff and students will be tested before being allowed into school for the start of term; and in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend universal testing of all students and staff in K-12 schools. Hong Kong is currently considering introducing mandatory testing for all children to allow it to reopen its schools, which currently remain closed until at least early September. Q How will social distancing work when schools reopen? A Campuses are typically places where students work around shared desks, children play tag in the playground, and young athletes tackle each other on the rugby pitch. Today, however, in Vietnam’s schools, students are required to keep one metre apart, desks are being spaced one metre apart and must be forward-facing; and there is a one-way system in the corridors to minimise contact. Nothing is the same as before, but throughout the period of distance learning teachers and students have already proved their ability to cope with change. In a recent survey of teachers in the UK by TES, a hub for the teaching community, 47% said that their biggest concern about going back to school was social distancing. And it’s easy to understand why. While many international schools with large campuses have the advantage of space and larger faculties to facilitate rotating schedules and fitting as many children into a classroom as possible while keeping them 1m apart, they still face the challenges of making major structural changes to their teaching environment. Students in all year groups can now return to campus daily, as long as they meet social distancing requirements. Most schools will keep groups of students within their own protective bubble’, to avoid sharing resources and mixing with large groups of children. Timetables have been staggered to ensure that students do not all enter and leave school at the same time, and students are spending the majority of their school day within their home room or one classroom. There is often no student food service on campus; instead, students should bring their own snacks and lunch from home. Tables in school canteens are limited to five students, with at least one-metre spacing between tables or groups. In other parts of the world, the social distancing requirement varies between 1m and 2m. We’ve seen images of students in France playing in 'isolated squares' drawn in paint and chalk on the playground, and Chinese pupils wearing one-metre hats to practise social distancing in the classroom. In Denmark, early years students stay in small groups all day, in protective bubbles’ rather than social distancing; micro-groups of children arrive at a separate time, eat their lunch separately, stay in their own zones in the playground and are taught by one teacher. Q Will students need to wear a face mask? A Yes, all students must wear either a face mask or face shield. Children and siblings under two years of age are not required to wear a mask. As anyone leaving their home is required to wear a mask or face shield, parents must remember to wear one for school drop-off and pick-up. During PE lessons, students and PE teachers will not be required to wear masks when doing strenuous physical activities such as running and drills for warm-ups. They will have to put on their masks at other times. Also, face masks do not to be worn while eating and drinking but should be worn at all other times during recess. As schools have opened worldwide, we have seen different approaches to wearing masks. In Taiwan and South Korea, among other countries, schools have fitted plastic barriers on students’ desks to create protective cubicles. In Germany, students are only required to wear masks in common areas. And in New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden, masks for students are not required at all. Q What should my child bring to school? A Students are advised to bring in their own water bottles to school, a mask and a spare, and a pencil case filled with stationery to avoid needing to borrow equipment from their teachers or peers. Q Can schools teach PE and extra-curricular activities? A In PE lessons, games have been modified to ensure that there is no sharing of equipment; all equipment is cleaned/disinfected at the end of the lesson. Team sports and extra-curricular activities remain cancelled. Q Will field trips and assemblies still go ahead? A Many aspects of school that make it sociable and fun have been stripped back – the school assemblies, end of year plays, sports days, music events, and awards ceremonies. All school excursions and residential trips, including competitive sports with other schools, are currently cancelled until at least Term 2. . Governments worldwide are being steered by guidelines – The Framework for Reopening Schools – for the safe reopening of schools issued by UNESCO, UNICEF, WFP and World Bank. This framework includes prohibiting activities that require large gatherings, which is advice that is being widely followed. Q How should students travel to and from school? A If your child is travelling to school on public transport, they must wear a mask, and safe distancing should be observed. If driving, many schools are asking all parents to drop their children at kiss and go’ zones rather than escorting them onto campus and into class. Worldwide, parents have been barred from entering school grounds, and told to wave goodbye to their children at the gate; in New Zealand, for example, parents remained at the school gate when their children returned to the classroom in May. Q Will my child need to have daily temperature checks? A All students must have a daily temperature check; students can only attend school if their temperature is below Parents and helpers collecting their children must also have temperature checks taken before entering school grounds. Some schools have thermal cameras at the school gate to monitor temperature. Children worldwide are starting their school day with a temperature check, which is widely considered a key tool in keeping on top of the Covid-19 pandemic as a fever is one of the early signs of the virus. Adding this new procedure to the school day may slow down children coming into school, but it could prove vital. Q What other health and safety precautions must be followed by schools? A At all schools, students are required to submit a health and travel declaration form before term starts. Once on campus, students should not share stationery, there are hand sanitisers across campuses, and school premises are being regularly cleaned and disinfected. Water fountains may be switched off as a possible source of contamination, and students must bring their own water bottles to school; the number of students using the toilets at any one time is strictly regulated. It is universally acknowledged that schools need to be disinfected everyday, there should be hand sanitisers around campuses, and students are encouraged to wash their hands frequently. Renaissance International School Saigon is enforcing social distancing measures across the campus What To Expect For 2020-21 Q Does my child have to attend school? A Parents are free to decide whether their child will attend an international school; however, there is no guarantee that all schools will continue to provide distance learning once campuses reopen. Globally, it is more than likely to be mandatory for children attending local, government-run schools to return to campus. In the UK, for example, children must return to school once they reopen and the UK government has said that, “For the vast majority of children, the benefits of being back in school far outweigh the very low risk from coronavirus COVID-19. And, even if private and international schools do offer the option of distance learning, this will only be a short-term solution. Q What happens if my child cannot attend school? While the majority of students are able to be physically present on campus, others may not. Some schools in Vietnam are providing both online for a short period of time and at-school learning, to cater for students who may be delayed returning to school due to quarantine and travel restrictions. While in most countries worldwide, students will not have the option to continue with online learning once schools reopen, there are some exceptions. In the UAE, for example, Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority KHDA has requested all private schools to offer 100% distance learning provision for the new academic year to parents who request it. This will be temporary measure “intended to help ease parents and children into an eventual return to face-to-face learning”. Q What happens if there is a case of Covid-19 at my school? A Is there is a confirmed case of Covid-19 reported in a school, the school will isolate the individual student immediately and notify a public health official for further investigation, quarantine and treatment. Q What happens if the Covid-19 situation worsens? A. If the situation changes, the Vietnam government may decide to close campuses again or enforce stricter social distancing measures. In this instance, many international schools have planned for various scenarios to return to a distance learning programme or alternate remote learning with a modified on-campus learning model. Q Will the IB Diploma Programme exams still go ahead in November? A At this time, the November 2020 exams are scheduled to take place as planned. But this could change if school closures become widespread again due to new waves of Covid-19. The International Baccalaureate Organisation IBO says “However, as circumstances around the globe shift daily, we continue to monitor the situation closely. In the event that the exam session cannot take place, the IB will use procedures to ensure students can be assessed and awarded either the Diploma, Career-related Programme certificate or course results which reflect their standard of work.” Q Are schools open for tours and open days? A Prospective parents and visitors can only visit campuses out of school hours and an appointment must always be made; many schools are still offering virtual tours as well. Will your child be starting a new school in August? How do you feel about the return to school for the new academic year? We’d love to hear your thoughts - email us on [email protected] or comment below…

the academic year in vietnam