EQuest acquires controlling stake in Khoi Nguyen Education

The four member schools within the Canadian International and Bilingual school system include the Canadian International School (CIS), Bilingual Canadian International School (BCIS), Albert Einstein School (AES), and Canada-Vietnam Kindergarten (CVK).

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, co-founder, chairman, and CEO of EQuest Education Group, and Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh, co-founder and general director of KNE Group at the signing ceremony on December 2. Photo: EQuest

Co-founder and general director of KNE Group Nguyen Thi Kieu Oanh said, “The successful cooperation between KNE and EQuest is the result of a very long working process between leaders of both sides to ensure an understanding of their common core values and strategic direction. For KNE, this is a very important milestone after more than 10 years of being in operation and it starts a new chapter for its member schools in the application of modern educational technology (edtech) platforms.”

“In the process of cooperation, the interests of students, teachers, and employees are always our first and most important priorities,” announced Dr. Dam Quang Minh, president of the K-12 Division of EQuest Group.

Representatives of KKR, EQuest, and KNE at the signing ceremony. Photo by EQuest

Established in 2010, KNE includes four international and bilingual schools in Ho Chi Minh City with more than 3,000 students from kindergarten to grade 12 and state-of-the-art educational facilities.

KNE Group is currently the first and only private educational institution in Vietnam to provide the K-12 educational programmes of Ontario Province (Canada) under the advisement and quality supervision of the Toronto City Department of Education – Canada’s largest public education department and the fourth largest in North America. CIS was accredited to run the prestigious International Baccalaureate (IB) in 2015 and is now an official member of the Council of International Schools.

Students at Canadian International School in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by EQuest

With a holistic and integrated education ecosystem, students at EQuest and KNE will be able to benefit from ample resources and domestic and international cooperation relationships, thereby enhancing the quality of learning outcomes for students aiming to study at top universities in Vietnam and internationally.

EQuest and KNE will share financial resources, management practices, teaching resources, technology platforms, and development experiences from the top schools in the two systems. Therefore, students from both systems will have more opportunities to access and experience world-class training programmes.

In accordance with the strategic partnership agreement, representatives from EQuest will be appointed to the Board of Directors of KNE, including Dr. Nguyen Quoc Toan, Dr. Dam Quang Minh, Annabelle Vultee, and David Armstrong.

With the new acquisition of KNE, EQuest has reaffirmed its position as the leading private educational group in Vietnam. Photo: EQuest

EQuest Education Group is one of the largest private educational institutions in Vietnam with more than 130,000 students in an ecosystem from K-12 to colleges, universities, and EdTech across the country. EQuest’s K-12 members include inter-school systems such as Alpha School (Hanoi), Hanoi Primary School for Educational Technology, Happy School (Vung Tau), Newton Grammar School system (Hanoi and Vinh Phuc), Hanoi Star Education system, and St. Nicholas (Danang).

EQuest’s system of colleges and universities includes Vietnamese American College (Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), Broward College (an American college with campuses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City), Saigon Polytechnic High School, and Phu Xuan University (Hue).

iSMART Education, MegaSchool, and MegaTest educational technology systems provide tech solutions for learning English, Maths, and Science, with hundreds of thousands of digitalised lectures and testing platforms for more than 500,000 students nationwide.

In June 2022, EQuest Education Group achieved comprehensive quality accreditation by Cognia, the largest US-based accreditation body in the world. It will apply the Cognia accreditation at CIS, BCIS, AES and CVK whilst still fully meeting the existing accreditation standards of the IB.

Students within the CIS, BCIS, and AES systems will also have options to study with American curriculums and AP courses. In addition, they will be well equipped with the necessary support to successfully apply to top universities in the US and around the world.

By becoming a key shareholder of KNE, EQuest has increased the number of its unit members under the K-12 Division to 16 schools in all three regions of Vietnam.

United Nations International School of Hanoi celebrates 35th United Nations Day Vietnamese and international community members gathered at the United Nations International School of Hanoi (UNIS Hanoi), one of only two United Nations schools in the world, to commemorate the school’s 35 years of Learning to Inspire on November 11.