(Photo: Graduation Ceremony of Sedbergh School Vietnam HCMC, a member of CIS)
I propose that leaders of private schools completely cease all congratulations and bragging about their students getting into specialized public high schools. Doing this only harms young people and negatively impacts private schools themselves.
We inadvertently reinforce a deeply flawed misconception that specialized public schools are superior to private schools. Getting into a specialized public school cannot be the standard to evaluate a young person, and even less so the benchmark for developing individuals for this era. The educational quality of a private school is not measured by its students getting into specialized public schools, but by its capacity to cultivate well-rounded students who succeed over the long term.
The more private schools continue to do this, the more students they will lose the following year. There is absolutely no reason to demean oneself by praising admission into a specialized public school. Getting in is natural, as students at high-quality private schools are inherently very capable and well-rounded.
Private schools possess many distinct values that are far superior to specialized public schools. In developed nations—especially in the United States, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and even China—having a child attend a private K-12 school is a source of immense pride for a family. It reflects social standing, family financial capacity, educational vision, and serves as an indicator that the child is receiving a well-rounded education while living and learning within a network of successful families. Vietnam is perhaps the only place that brags about students/children transferring from private schools to specialized public schools (and not even to study STEM subjects at a very deep level).
The Newton School System in Hanoi has students admitted to Princeton, Peking University, and Tsinghua; students winning gold medals at international Olympiads; student valedictorians in high school national exams this year; and students winning city, national, and international academic awards every year. Hanoi Star School maintains an acceptance rate under 10%, with countless national and international accolades. Einstein School HCMC consistently has students receiving ASEAN scholarships. Sedbergh School in HCMC delivers top-tier Cambridge education, boasts students who excel in sports, holds gold medalists across academic subjects, and secured a first-place national award in Economics this year.
St. Nicholas School (Da Nang) has students playing orchestral music, running marathons, earning special awards at the World Scholar’s Cup, and gaining admission to major universities in the UK and US. Alpha School sees 65% of its Grade 12 students achieve an IELTS score above 6.5, with members serving on national basketball and golf teams. CIS has students receiving the most prestigious scholarships from the University of Toronto, gaining admission to the Ivy League in the US, and entering the University of London in the UK.
Nguyen Sieu School has a higher number of students achieving top IGCSE scores than all specialized and international schools in Hanoi. Luong The Vinh High School, founded by the late Professor Van Nhu Cuong, commands immense prestige. Doan Thi Diem School, led by People’s Teacher Ms. Hien, remains a bright spot in Hanoi education.
With such achievements, why resort to praising specialized public schools? Why demean oneself like that? Why cling to an outdated standard of success from several decades ago?
What is the point of specialized English, specialized Chinese, specialized History, specialized Geography, or specialized Civic Education? For specialized English or Chinese, IELTS is still just IELTS, and HSK is still just HSK—no different from the scores of any student graduating with IGCSE or taking HSK at Sedbergh or Nguyen Sieu. What is the point of specialized History or specialized Geography when AI and Google can answer that knowledge in less than a second?
The vast majority of specialized schools lack elite sports programs, lack comprehensive school psychology systems, lack strong English and STEM programs, and students still have to pay extra to prep for SAT, IELTS, TOEFL, and pursue extracurriculars. So why do private schools persist in blindly taking pride when their students get into specialized schools?
Private schools are harming themselves and committing suicide by glorifying the “specialized” school model, turning themselves into talent pipelines for specialized public schools. By bragging about students passing specialized school entrance exams, progressive private schools are converting themselves into a secondary choice in the eyes of parents.
There is no reason to celebrate private school students entering specialized public schools just to convince parents to enroll their children for middle school. This approach yields benefits for only one year, but over the long term, it degrades the value of high-quality private schools. At the same time, it deprives many exceptional students from affluent families of major life opportunities—students who abandon private education for the empty prestige of “specialized schools,” forfeiting long-term impactful opportunities regarding high-quality parent and student networks, elite sports, nutrition, foreign languages, STEM, school counseling, extracurricular programs, and admission to world-leading universities.
It is completely absurd and misguided to transfer a child who is happy, sleeping well, eating well, playing sports, and excelling academically into an environment where they suffer from sleep deprivation due to staying up late and waking up early, receive less daily nutrition, face stress from competing in overcrowded classrooms, study a single subject obsessively, and pay extra for test prep to get into university. All because the boy/girl passed an exam that they were bound to pass from the start, simply because they were already exceptional.
The 21st century is the era of AI, high technology, big data, creativity, mental health, leadership capability, and global citizenship. Why then do we remain obsessed with and sanctify a model designed decades ago to train students who excel in only a single academic subject?
(P.S.: I am strictly referring to private schools bragging about their students entering specialized public schools.)
Nguyen Quoc Toan
