On Monday morning, August 12, 2019, Ton Duc Thang University held the opening ceremony and welcomed the new school year (2019-2020) in Vietnam-Finland International School (VFIS).

The ceremony took place in the presence of the senior leaders from Finland and Vietnam:

From Finland, there were distinguished guests, namely Mr. Olli-Pekka Heinonen, Director General at the Finnish National Agency for Education;  Mr. Kari Kahiluoto, Ambassador of Finland to Vietnam; Mr. Ilkka-Pekka Simila, Director General of the Department for External Economic Relations of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland; Mr. Jouni Kangasniemi, Head of Development in the International Department of the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture; Mr. Janne Oksanen, the Consular and Deputy Head of Mission of Finnish Embassy in Vietnam; Ms. Anna Korpi, an Education and Science Counsellor in the Embassy of Finland in Singapore and Vietnam; Mr. Pasi Toiva, Managing Director at the professional consultancy company WCF; Ms. Karola Sahi and Mr. Olli Pekka Jokela, the architects who were in charge of desgining and supervising quá trình the process of VFIS construction; Ms. Kristiina Ussitalo, the artist creating the wall paintings at VFIS; Mr. Peter Vesterbacka, a Finnish businessman and the founder of Angry Birds.

From Vietnam, there were Mr. Huynh Dam, Former chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee; Mr. Le Thang Loi, Deputy Director of Office No. 2 of Southern Education Development Center of Ministry of Education and Training; Mr. Nguyen Van Hieu, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training; and other senior leaders from An Giang, Lam Dong, Binh Thuan, Gia Lai, Quang Ngai, Tien Giang, Tay Ninh, Dak-Lak and Ninh Thuan.

From TDTU and VFIS, there were Ms. Hoang Thi Khanh, Chủ tịch Hội đồng sáng lập TDTU Chairman of the Founding Committee of Ton Duc Thang University, Professor Le Vinh Danh, President of TDTU and Founder of VFIS; Professor Nguyen Van Tuan Senior Scientific Advisor and Vice chairman of TDTU Science and Training Committee; Professor Trinh Quang Phu, Member of the University Board, Vice chairman of TDTU Science and Training Committee; Dr. Dang Ngoc Tung, Former chairman of Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and  Member of the University Board; Ms. Principal of VFIS. 

VFIS is the first Finnish standard school in Vietnam, which is invested completely by TDTU and established under the Decision No. 5834 / QD-HCMC dated November 7, 2016 of HCMC People's Committee. The school not only marks an important milestone in the educational cooperation between Vietnam and Finland but also represents a significant achievement for the integration of international education in Vietnam, which creates more opportunities for Vietnamese students to access the most advanced educational environment in the world.

As a member of TDTU, VFIS is a self-sufficient and not-for-profit public school. All proceeds will be reinvested to the University to bring the best benefits to the learners.
VFIS consists of a basement, a ground floor, two floors and a terrace with a total construction area of more than 50,000 m2 on 5 hectares of land inside TDTU, which guarantees to provide enough space for over 2,000 teachers and students to teach and learn. In particular, VFIS is designed and directly supervised by excellent Finnish architects with the aim of optimizing pedagogical efficiency in an open and flexible learning space. VFIS serves as a miniature community to bring about comprehensive and happy development for students. 

In this first school year, VFIS implemented 2 educational programmes: the International Programme taught 100% in English, which is designed according to Finnish general education programme from grade 1 to grade 9 and the International Baccalaureate Programme (IB) for high school levels, the English-Vietnamese bilingual programme (designed to integrate Finnish high school programme with Vietnamese high school programme). 

In the school year 2019-2020, VFIS welcomes over 200 students (from grade 1 to grade 5) to study at VFIS. 

Previously, VFIS also successfully organized the 2019 Summer Course for nearly 90 students to participate in 7 weeks of exciting experiences that helped children enhance their social skills and proper behaviours according to the school's culture of equality and cooperation so that they could form a standard and healthy study and living habit, and be ready for the new school year at VFIS starting from August 19, 2019

Some photos of the Ceremony: