Parents when choosing schools for children are always careful because the “educational environment decides a person”. A school with professional teachers, a comprehensive curriculum and strong leadership helps creat “the product” that is a valuable and contributing citizen for society.
Of the current international schools in Ho Chi Minh City, the Canadian International School System (CIS System) is the first and only international school to have a long-term comprehensive and dynamic relationship with a foreign public district school board, the District School Board of Niagara (DSBN), in Ontario, Canada. This professional collaboration helps the CIS System to maintain its educational quality on par with the very best practices from the progressive Ontario public school system in Canada.
The differences
Many parents have recognized that the relationship with DSBN is an important difference of the CIS System compared to other international schools in Vietnam. During the past four years, DSBN has been providing consulting on the K-12 curriculum and teaching and learning strategies to support CIS to achieve academic excellence.
DSBN is also responsible for recruiting and recommending teachers to ensure that the CIS System has a team of qualified and certified teachers to deliver the Ontario program to students effectively.
DSBN also conducts annual inspections of CIS to monitor progress and suggest ways to improve and grow so that the education programs here meet with Ontario’s world-class standard. At CIS students in grade 11 can choose to complete grade 12 in a public secondary school under DSBN in Canada or here in Vietnam.
This relationship enriches the CIS System’s opportunities for continuous school improvements by learning from the experiences from the best schools in Niagara and provides the advantage of current learning resources which have been continuously recommended by DSBN.
“Verified and chosen by parents”
With two marvelous campuses in Binh Chanh and Phu My Hung, the CIS System has up to 1,300 students in three programs – the International, the Bilingual and the Canada-Vietnam Kindergarten (CVK) – with 66 Canadian teachers and 40 Vietnamese teachers and assistants.
Students in the CIS System are showing results in their study every day, especially the achievements of CIS’s first 12th graders. It can be said that CIS is getting its first ripe fruits and can be proud of its educational quality as a school “verified and chosen by parents”
Mr. Kit Ong, father of Mira Ariel Ong, a student in grade 5 of CIS said, “Mira enjoys going to CIS very much. She has made some great friends there. But what makes us think best about CIS is that Mira gets to become her own person through learning, not just studying.”
And Mr. Keshav Dayalani, father of Manan Dayalani who is currently in grade 4 of CIS, shared, "I am extremely confident in the teachers, the curriculum, the learning atmosphere in CIS and especially pleased with the amenities available for teaching, physical development and entertainment of the school".
Mrs. Phan Thi Hoang Anh, mother of Le Hoang Huong Nhi, an 8thgrader of CIS, believes that the reason that attracted their family to CIS is the teaching methods that allow students to think outside the box. “I was convinced by the dedication and enthusiasm of the teachers. It’s about the quality, not the quantity”, Mrs. Hoang Anh said.
CIS is famous among international schools for its website, which is updated almost every day with all the activities, letting the parents in on their children’s school life (www.cis.edu.vn). |