VietNamNet Bridge - A language school is in operation. Then suddenly one day, both the school and teachers disappear, and students are asked to study at another school. It is like passengers on an interprovince bus being requested to change buses.

This building used to be Au- Viet Language Centre; it now is an electrical equipment shop

After the “SITC shock” in 02/2006, N.T.M. dropped by the European –Vietnamese Language Centre at 421 Ba Tháng Hai, District 10, HCM City. As soon as M. expressed an intention to enroll, she was asked to pay 50,000 dong to “book a seat.” About 10 days after, M returned and paid the amount of 3 million dong to register for a Pre-TOEIC 2 programme.

After 2 months studying there, one day at the beginning of April, M went to school only to find an empty class with no teacher. She ran to ask the receptionist, who answered that her teacher was sick, so class was canceled. School employees asked M to study temporarily in another class while waiting for the teacher’s recovery.

Not long afterwards, in the middle of April, things happened again. M, as well as other students, was not requested to move to other another class, but another school, the European-American Language Centre. Many students were angry. When asked, school employees explained that the centre was currently under repair, so students were to study at another school. Despite students’ skepticism and perplexity, the “transferring” took place. Students didn’t know that the centre would soon disappear, leaving students with greater distrust in language schools.

In another case, Ms.L.T.H, a resident of Tan Binh District, paid 1,300,000 dong to the Maple Leaf Language Centre at the beginning of 2006. She was told to come back at the beginning of July, 2006 for class. She waited in vain for the programme to start. So she decided to ask for her money back, but the centre promised her again and again that class would start. Similarly, Mr. Đ.H.C., the father of a prospective student, had to ask for police intervention. His son paid tuition fees on 03/14/2006, and from then until the end of July, did not study there even one day. For a long time the centre did not operate. Both students and school employees kept on waiting. In the end, students were asked to choose between getting back their money and moving to other language schools.

The buses that did not return

The Maple Leaf Language Centre was a language school that opened for business at the beginning of 2006. After a short time, several issues around employees’ salaries arose. The centre’s director admitted that the school was having financial problems. He explained that because the school had recently gone into business, it couldn’t recruit a large number of students while it had to deliever free teaching to certain students, including those who transferred from SITC. At the present, according to our investigation, the main office where students registered is no longer in operation.

In the meatime, to “follow the traces” of the European-Vietnamese Language Centre, we visited 421 Ba Tháng Hai Road, District 10, HCM City. We only found an electrical equipment shop. When asked for any information regarding the old language school, the employees at the shop merely shook their heads. Only an old man fixing watches at the front door remembered a school used to be there. But he didn’t know what made the school disappear.

According to our investigation, this centre also faced too many problems to operate. In 02/2006, the school already wanted to dissolve. The director of the European-American Language Centre, which received students transferring from the European-Vietnamese Centre, said that in the middle of 04/2006, the E-V Centre asked the E-A Centre to support and receive its students. The E-A school timely accepted these students. Some of these students have completed their programmes, and others are still studying at the E-A Centre.

When SITC dissolved, responsible authorities had to be an “unwilling bridge” to take thousands of students to new schools. Some of those students were lucky enough to be placed in quality centres, while some weren’t. At any rate, that transferring process was monitored by authorities. On the contrary, recent cases of “bus transferring” have been negotiated between two language schools. In reality, no language school enjoys transferring their students to other places. However, for many reasons, including fierce competition, some language schools have to step out of the arena. Things like this will happen. And what students have to do is to be cautious when choosing a language school.

(Source: Tuoi Tre)