Ban Mai School

Part of the University of Cambridge. It allows a school to teach the Cambridge programmes and to enter pupils for the exams. There are four stages and they are authorised separately: primary, lower secondary, IGCSE and A Level. If the stages are known they are named in the line below; if that line is missing, the school does not publish them, and the Cambridge registry does not show stages either - it gives only the name of the centre, the country and whether private candidates are accepted. Cambridge calls what it does registration rather than accreditation, and the network holds about ten thousand schools.

What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: Primary (ages 5-11), Lower Secondary (ages 11-14), IGCSE (ages 14-16), A-Level (ages 16-18). Primary is the primary stage, ages 5 to 11: English, mathematics and science to Cambridge syllabuses. At the end of the stage a school may run the optional Checkpoint test, which is marked in Cambridge. Lower Secondary is the middle stage, ages 11 to 14, with the same optional Checkpoint test at the end. IGCSE means exams at around Year 10 or 11, the British counterpart of a lower secondary leaving certificate. A-Level is the senior years, and their results are what British and many other universities admit on.

Tập đoàn Giáo dục IGC is the operator of its own network of institutions from kindergarten to college, with its head office in Ho Chi Minh City. Ownership, management and franchise are not separated, the owner of the group is not named and nothing is said about franchising. The numbers differ and we give both: the introductory text speaks of more than 28 years of work and 26 institutions, while the summary of figures on the same page gives 28 institutions - 12 kindergartens, 13 general schools, a college and two academies; elsewhere in the same section 27 years is given. The count of schools differs as well: the Vietnamese page names 8 all-through schools in Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Ben Tre and Tay Ninh and more than 12,000 pupils, the English page 9 schools in Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh City, Lam Dong, Tay Ninh and Ben Tre. The chronology begins on 1 April 1998 with the Le Quy Don school in Tan Mai, the first private school in Dong Nai province, and goes on with the Sonadezi college (2005), Trinh Hoai Duc (2006), Ban Mai (2007), Thai Binh Duong (2010), Le Quy Don Quyet Thang (2014), IGC Tay Ninh (2019) and IGC Ben Tre (2021). There are two lines of study: enhanced quality and bilingual; the ministry's programme serves as the base, with English to CEFR, Cambridge programmes, the IC3 and MOS certificates, STEAM and Leader in Me added to it.

What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.

Ban Mai School, in Vietnamese Hệ thống Trường liên cấp BMS - a Vietnamese system of all-through schools from kindergarten to high school in Hanoi and Hung Yen province. Since 2022 BMS has called itself a member of the group Tập đoàn Giáo dục IGC, with a head office in Ho Chi Minh City; the website does not separate ownership and management, says nothing about a franchise and names no legal entity of its own. The numbers diverge, and we give both: the summary of figures gives 3 sites, while the list of the system gives 4 schools: the Ban Mai kindergarten and primary school in Van Quan (Ha Dong, Hanoi), the Ban Mai secondary and high school in Van Phu, and the Hồng Đức school in My Hao, Hung Yen, which joined the system in 2024. The length of work diverges as well: the Vietnamese page writes "almost 20 years" and 18 years of development, the English one more than 15 years, while the chronology marks 2016 as Ban Mai's tenth anniversary; the high school opened in 2017. As for pupils, the Vietnamese page gives more than 5,000, and the news item for the 2026-2027 school year about 4,000. The network issues no accreditation of its own: three stages of Ban Mai are listed as Cambridge international schools under the codes VN469, VN287 and VN292. The basis of teaching is the ministry programme in two lines, a higher-quality one and a bilingual one.

What this means for this school. The network owns or operates the school. Its accreditation and programme authorisation the school obtains separately, in its own name.