The Guide
Wed, 24 June 2026

Cities / Saigon / Fosco International School

Fosco International School

A small American-curriculum school in District 3 founded in 1997, run by FOSCO, the state-owned services company for foreign missions in Ho Chi Minh City.



A small American-curriculum school in District 3 founded in 1997, run by FOSCO, the state-owned services company for foreign missions in Ho Chi Minh City.

FIS only goes up to Grade 5, covering ages 18 months to 11 on a shaded compound set well back from the road. Teaching is monolingual in English, built on the US Common Core standards since 2013, with an enhanced English-as-a-second-language strand for non-native speakers. Facilities include large and small swimming pools, sports court, and dedicated play areas by age group.

Families and staff describe a calm family atmosphere where teachers are given room to teach without interference and management keeps the focus on individual children. The state-owned operator and the small size keep fees well below the IB names in District 2 and District 7. A useful early-years and primary fit for diplomatic and consular families based central, less of an option for parents who want a finished K to 12 destination.


  • Fosco International School is a Saigon nursery and primary, ages 18 months to 11, founded 1997 and run as a branch of the FOSCO service company that supports foreign missions in Vietnam. The American-style curriculum is delivered in English, with an enhanced English-as-a-second-language strand for Vietnamese pupils.
  • Fees are at the lower end of HCMC's international segment, which is part of the appeal: families weighing the city's higher-priced primaries surface Fosco as a budget-friendlier option in District 3.
  • Independent review volume is very low. The handful of public Google Reviews are short, mostly Vietnamese, uniformly five-star, and read more as goodwill than as detailed parent feedback. One unattributed comment describes the campus as old and run down.
  • Fosco does not appear in the recurring Saigon expat-school comparison threads. Parent forum signal is essentially absent; the school sits outside the AIS, BIS, ISHCMC, SSIS conversation.

Considerations

  • Affordable primary option. Fees sit below VND 300m for Year 1, which makes Fosco one of the cheaper international primaries in Ho Chi Minh City
  • Facilities. An online review describes the campus as old and run down, against an otherwise undocumented physical plant
  • Operator and remit. Run by FOSCO, a state-linked services company for foreign missions; remit shapes who the school is built to serve
  • Independent review pool. Very low volume; absent from Reddit and the main HCMC expat-school comparison threads

40 Bà Huyện Thanh Quan, Xuân Hòa, Hồ Chí Minh 700000, Vietnam

School website