First online advanced-maths school to open in Vietnam

Even prior to its commencement, MVSM has attracted about 1,500 students to reserve their seats. Besides the advanced maths programmes, the students will be provided with a supplementary English programme taught by American teachers.

On November 4, MVSM signed a cooperation agreement with the AoPS School in California. AoPS is the largest and most successful after-school advanced maths programme in the United States, with over 750,000 alumni and an online community of over three million. All US team members have recently competed in international math competitions and are former members of AoPS.

Founder and CEO of AoPS Richard Rusczyk said, “Our mission is to discover, inspire, and train the great problem solvers of our next generation. Vietnam is a young and growing country with many potential problem solvers. This partnership is a great opportunity for us to bring our resources to millions of students that we could not have reached out to by ourselves, hopefully helping them to solve a lot of the problems that the next generation is going to face.”

MVSM follows the Pyramid Math teaching model and focuses on instilling a love of mathematics in students, which forms the base of the pyramid. The next layer consists of students with slightly better maths abilities who are selected to take on more difficult lessons. On top of the pyramid are students with real maths talent.

MVSM advocates a flexible programme design so that learners – in addition to pursuing maths at all levels – are allowed to pursue different maths subjects depending on their individual development needs.

An online learning session at MVA

In addition to its direct utilisation of the AoPS curriculum, MVSM has close cooperation with the Unicorn Math Club (UMC) which is sponsored by the Vietnam Mathematical Institute.

It is expected that excellent students from MVSM will be selected to receive partial or full scholarships with UMC and receive training from top mathematics professors in Vietnam.

Pham Tuan Anh, director of MVSM noted, “In the context of the current technological revolution, mathematics increasingly asserts its role as a fundamental area of knowledge. The world’s labour market will always be in need of workers who are good at maths and fluent in English.”

“In this revolution, Vietnam has the opportunity to develop a breakthrough economy, accompanied by many other strategic benefits for the future of the country. To do this, we need a knowledgeable workforce that's comparable to the rest of the world and we need to start preparing now," Tuan Anh added.

With the advantage of online teaching, MVSM commits to a tuition fee of less than $40 for 20 lessons per month (including one maths session and four English lessons per week). New students will be provided free English language courses by the school, while low-income families will have a chance to receive scholarship support.

Vietnamese edtech market attractive to investors Educational technology (edtech) startups in Vietnam have drawn many domestic and foreign venture capital funds thanks to their high development potential.

Shifting sands in progress for edtech amid reopening Since April 6, nearly one million grade 1-6 students in Hanoi have gone back to in-person classes, meaning schools in most major cities of Vietnam are now fully reopened. As education returns to its former setting, can edtech maintain its investment momentum?

Education investment dips increasingly into edtech If previously, Singaporean education investors saw opportunities in opening new training facilities in Vietnam or joint training programmes with existing educational institutions, the market in recent times has witnessed the entry of more Singaporean funds into the edtech sector.