There are 120 state-owned high schools in HCM City and 90 non-state high schools. Under current laws, the students finishing secondary school can automatically continue studying at high schools.

However, those who want to study at state-owned high schools have to attend entrance exams. It is estimated that 10,000 students fail the exams every year. Even if all of them enroll in non-state high schools, the number is not high enough for all the schools.

Many private high schools were set up in recent years in response to the Ministry of Education and Training’s call for education socialization. However, except for a few schools which have a good reputation, the majority of others have been either shut down or continue to suffer a shortage of students.

The HCM City Education and Training Department has released a report showing that there are 20 non-state high schools in the city which cannot enroll 100 students. Some of them have no students.

The Hien Vuong Private High School and Hoang Dieu Private High School have stopped their operations. The Phuong Nam people-founded High School in Thu Duc District and Khai Tri High School in District 5 have had their operation licenses revoked.

In the 2013-2014 academic year, Van Lang people-founded High School only had 88 students, Phan Huy Ich School 16, Dai Viet 46, Ham Nghi 79 and Dong Duong 92. Meanwhile, Tran Quoc Tuan High School in District 11 reportedly did not have any student.

The headmaster of a private high school confirmed it was very difficult to enroll students.

“In previous years, we could find enough students for four to five classes, with 35 students in every class. But the number of students this year is just enough for two classes,” she said.

Analysts believe that one of the reasons behind the sharp fall of the number of students going to private high schools is the economic crisis, which has forced families to tighten their belts.

The majority of the students of private high schools are children from poor and immigrant families. Meanwhile, they are the biggest economic crisis.

In principle, only people who who have permanent residence are allowed to study at state-owned schools funded from the city’s budget. As a result, the children from other provinces have no other choice than to go to private schools, which always require high tuition.

Analysts predicted that the situation might get even worse for private high schools, because they would have to compete with vocational schools and junior colleges to find students.

Students, after finishing the 9th grade, are allowed to enroll in schools with vocational training courses. They spend 2.5-3 years to finish the courses, during which they can follow the high school curricula and learn their trade at the same time.

Secondary school graduates can also continue study by attending continuing education classes, where they only have seven compulsory learning subjects and pay tuition of VND120,000 a month, much lower than the tuition set by private high schools.