08 Nov 2019
A pilot scheme to develop bilingual education in Vietnam has reached a major milestone with the official registration of Chu Van An High School as the first state high school in Vietnam to achieve Cambridge International School status.
Hanoi People’s Committee and Hanoi Department of Education and Training launched a pilot scheme in August 2017 teaching a mix of the country’s national curriculum, in Vietnamese, and English language courses delivered in partnership with Cambridge International.
The successful project was extended to a further seven secondary and high schools in the capital in 2018, giving learners the chance to follow the Cambridge Lower Secondary maths and science curricula and to study Cambridge IGCSEs and Cambridge International A Levels.
Students at Chu Van An High School have already taken Cambridge International AS Levels in maths, chemistry, physics, and economics, with good results in the June 2019 exam series underlining their ability to successfully transfer knowledge acquired in Vietnamese to subjects learnt in English.
This month (November) they will take the ‘second part’ of the qualifications to complete their Cambridge International A Levels.
The decision to extend the pilot scheme was announced by the Chairman of Hanoi People's Committee, Dr Nguyen Duc Chung, at a ceremony celebrating Chu Van An High School’s new status as a Cambridge school.
He said: 'Three years into our pilot project, the state schools in Hanoi that have been cooperating on the dual qualification programme with our international partners have been meeting the learning needs of students in the capital.
'We are currently considering ways to expand this programme in future.'
Cambridge International is working closely with the Hanoi Department of Education and Training to register the remaining pilot schools, and to expand the scheme to more state schools in Hanoi.
The registered Vietnam state schools will join a global community of nearly one million students in over 10 000 Cambridge schools in 160 countries.
Cambridge International’s country manager for Vietnam, Melvyn Lim, said: 'We are delighted to be the preferred education partner for Vietnam’s compulsory education system in the teaching of subjects in English. We look forward to contributing more of our knowledge, experience and expertise towards the uplifting of Vietnam’s educational system.'
Cambridge International qualifications are internationally recognised by employers and over 1400 universities worldwide, including over 500 in the US (including the Ivy League) and all UK universities.