In 2010, the International School of Hanoi (QSI) construction project was kicked off on To Ngoc Van Street, Tay Ho District, Hanoi City. To learn more about this project, Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Mr Susan Seaman, Director of QSI.
Vietnam’s educational socialisation is speeding up; what are your targets?
Our target students are foreign children whose parents are working in Vietnam or Vietnamese pupils who expect to approach and accustom modern educational environment and prepare for overseas study, or international students who wish to study in Vietnam.
QSI has been operational in Haiphong since 2005. What made you expand this model?
It is easy to see that most diplomatic establishments and non-government organizations are located in Hanoi. Dozens of thousands of foreign specialists, engineers, managers, technicians and diplomats are working in Vietnam.
Averagely, if a foreign family working in Vietnam has a child learning from the first grade to the twelfth grade, there are dozens of thousands of students. Thus, the number of students in an international school may climb to thousands.
Moreover, there is now a trend that many Vietnamese families in Hanoi and surrounding areas can afford their children to study at international schools from the preschool level. They are ready to let their children access modern educational environment where their offspring have full conditions for physical and spiritual development and certifications are globally accredited.
In addition, many Vietnamese students who follow their parents to work abroad cannot adapt to domestic educational programmes and international schools are ideal choices. We are confident that we can satisfy our target student groups because we know what we bring them what they need.
As an internationally accredited school, would you mind introducing more about your new project?
QSI International School of Hanoi is a day-boarding or boarding English-speaking school with four levels of education, namely preschool, primary, intermediate and secondary. Curricula are accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA). At the initial stage, QSI International School of Hanoi will enrol students aged from 3 to 13 and enrolment will be expanded to all ages satisfying the four levels of education.
So, what is the capacity of the school?
Once the construction is completed, English-speaking QSI will teach students from 3 years old to 18 years old (equivalent to kindergarten to Grade 12) with an internationally accredited educational programme of the United States. Apart from a strong force of excellent native English and Vietnamese teachers, QSI International School of Hanoi has synchronous, modern and comfortable equipment, including student buses, classrooms, materials, laboratories and libraries.
The objective of QSI is to bring American educational values and provide the newest knowledge on the world for its students to maximise their ability. And to do so, each student not only can achieve best exam results but also can develop all aspects in life such as the ability to comprehend culture, knowledge, sympathy and harmony of students of different nationalities as well as the sense of responsibility, discipline and concern for the community.
The Hanoi facility, which costs VND9 billion for construction, will has a total area of 1,144 square metres. We think the learning, leisure and recreation of students must be placed in a convenient ambiance. Thus, in addition to what to learn, how to learn, where to learn, pupils want to know how their schools will teach them.
At this school, we try our best to achieve the highest level of performance from master planning to architecture, offices, green areas and recreational spaces. The school is scheduled to start enrolments in late 2010.
Reported by Huong Thom
Vietnamese
