Education
Students fear being cheated by HCM City English Centre
  • | dtinews.vn, Tien Phong | September 26, 2021 11:27 AM
Hundreds of students in HCM City have expressed concern they may have been cheated by an English training centre which has disappeared after collecting their tuition fees.

In a letter sent to the Tien Phong Newspaper on September 21, Nguyen Thi Ha in Go Vap District said that she paid over VND 16 million (USD 696) for two English courses for her children at the SAS English Centre on Tran Thi Nghi Street in March 2021. However, her two children had only taken some classes before the centre suspended operation due to the recent Covid-19 outbreak.




A branch of the SAS English Training Centre in Go Vap District, Ho Chi Minh City

“The centre has not made any announcement since then," she said. "I've tried to contact them via phone, emails, and social websites to ask if they are going to launch online classes but failed.


Minh Hieu, 22, said that he and a friend paid over VND 25 million (USD 1,087) for six courses in March 2021.

"We finished our first course in May when the Covid-19 outbreak started and the centre announced to close," Hieu said. "They haven't made any further announcements since then. We haven't been able to contact them and we found that lots of information on their Facebook fan page has been deleted. We are very worried that we may lose our money."

Another student, Hong Van, said the centre told her class that they would provide online lessons during the social distancing time for Covid-19 prevention so many students continued to pay for the next courses.

“But they only organised some online classes before stopping in July, explaining that some teachers had been infected with Covid-19 and they needed time to arrange others," Van said. "It's been two months now and there's been no information from them."

Van said that she had tried to call the centre's hotlines but there were no receivers. She called some teachers and they said the centre has stopped operations while still owing many teachers and other staff.

A teacher at SAS told Tien Phong Newspaper that the centre had not paid salaries for March and April to her, totalling over VND 27 million.

“I've been unable to contact the centre's manager," the teacher said. "I've talked about this to some other teachers to know that they are facing the same problems."

Another teacher, Bui Dinh Bao, who used to teach at two branches of SAS on Phan Dang Luu and Nguyen Van Dau streets in Binh Thanh District said that the centre started to be slow in paying staff since the beginning of 2020.

"They have failed to pay us on the fifth day of a month for over a year," Bao said. “As far as I know, the centre is still owing salaries of more than 30 teachers at the two branches I'm teaching, worth nearly VND 400 million (USD 17,391). The same situation is occurring in many other branches. I am owed VND 16 million while many foreign teachers between VND 30 -50 million each."

The teacher said that he had called the centre's deputy director and heard some promises at first. But then he was unable to contact the centre's leaders anymore.

Tien Phong Newspaper has called and sent messages to Do Van Quan, CEO of SAS following information given by some students but there was no feedback.

The newspaper made another call to a vice director of SAS, Vu Pham Tuan Anh, but he said that he was only a staff member and the centre also owes him his salary.

“Many students and teachers have called and sent messages to me asking about their study fees and salaries but I am only a staff member," the vice director said. "I am waiting for the social distancing period to end on September 30 when I can come to the company and ask about this."

The website of HCM City Department of Education and Training said that SAS has a total of 24 branches in many districts.

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