Pham Thi Cuc Ha, graduated from Flinders University in South Australia in 2004 with a Masters in Education Management.  Since her return to Vietnam, Ha has established her own kindergarten to put into practice skills she learned in Australia under her Australian Development Scholarship.

An adult stepping through the front door of Pham Thi Cuc Ha's kindergarten might have doubts over the dazzling tangerine and lime walls, but a child would be delighted by them. Children and their education is Ha's passion, and she has turned that passion into a thriving business. Just Kids Education and Entertainment opened in June 2007 and currently has forty-five children whose ages range between two to five years. ‘I went to Australia specifically to realize this dream. I did my business plan with my supervisor in 2003, and it's what I'm using now,' Ha says, settling herself on the floor at a child's table in the library. 

She has come a long way in the three years since graduating with a Masters in Education Management from Flinders University in South Australia. Now thirty-seven, and crackling with energy, she began her working life as a kindergarten teacher in HCMC.  ‘I always wanted my own school. I had a plan back then, but Hanoi wasn't open to private schools, so I worked for different companies in education. But I always kept the idea of a school in mind.' 

What motivates her? ‘My childhood was peaceful. My mother was a teacher and she encouraged me to be one.  I didn't have anything to prove or fight against - that wasn't my motivation; it was just to find a nice place for my own kids.' 

Her husband, though not involved in Ha's school, has been supportive. ‘He's my banker,' she laughs. ‘I talked to him about the school ten years ago. He didn't think it would work as a business. He said I was too passionate - and I said my passion would make the business work. We have our different points of view, but he's happy for me to have this school. I wanted to start it immediately on graduating from Flinders, but I got sick. I worked as the Marketing Director for a US-based education software company, but it wasn't about kids, I didn't enjoy it, so I gave it up after a year.' She also declined an offer of a senior position managing a teenage forum website. ‘I felt too old to understand youth. They think differently now and it's hard to understand their tastes and trends. I understand children better. So I left and started Just Kids.' 

It took a year to set up, looking for the house, working with shareholders (two friends and a cousin), discussing the business plan, and developing the program. ‘I learnt a lot from Australia,' she says. ‘When I was there I put my daughter in the university kindergarten, and I studied their program.  What I'm trying to do here is combine the Vietnamese curriculum with an Australian one,' she says, citingShow and Tell as an Australian example. ‘The kids love it.' She uses an Australian music and movement program in conjunction with Vietnamese music and language, and employs both native English and Vietnamese-speaking teachers. ‘They all play with the kids to create an English-Vietnamese environment.' 

Ha has a five-year plan. ‘My vision is to expand the program, to do a television show for kids, and to build another school.' Although Ha does some fundraising for the U.S. based Humanitarian Services for Children of Vietnam, she says she'd like to do more. ‘I want to do more for disadvantaged kids, but don't have the facilities yet, so it's only financial help that I give now to build a playground. Right now I'll be happy with the kids I've got here and seeing their progress.' 

It's lunch time now, and the children are assembling around us, curious, before heading into the dining room. ‘I really want to thank AusAID and my teachers in Australia,' Ha says as she leaves to join the children. ‘I didn't just learn from the university, but also from the people who were around me. Those two years in Australia put me in a different, stronger, position in this market. I learnt how to set up a school that was different. And this is just the start!'

Nguồn: http://asdiv.edu.vn