Students from poorer households and rural Vietnamese cities face a lower standard of education than those in urban areas due to lower availability of supplementary classes and lesser household income to afford these classes (World Bank).
Vuihoc believes that where a student lives should not determine the quality of their education. The company aims to bring educational equity to every student in Vietnam through accessible and affordable educational material and online lessons with experienced teachers. The EduTech platform caters to students from elementary to high school, and teaches subjects such as English, Literature and STEM topics. Vuihoc strives to keep product prices competitive by leveraging on large class sizes which allows them to serve almost 2,000 students with just one highly experienced teacher and a handful of teaching assistants. Large classes also attract better teachers to the platform as they gain access to more students, especially in Tier 2 and 3 cities.
“Beyond keeping track of our students’ performance, we are currently working to better measure our environmental and social impact to understand where we are doing well and what needs to be improved. While other investors just ask for compliance, TNB Aura is one of the few investors that actively support us on our journey to quantify our impact.” – Lam Do, co-founder
Vuihoc increases student engagement by using AI to assess writing and speaking skills and data-driven insights to optimise scheduling, class sizes and course content. The company also awards scholarships to outstanding students from disadvantaged communities or those who support struggling learners. Additionally, the company contributes to building technology literacy by cooperating with the HOPE foundation to create a digital library program for 20,000 students in 35 primary schools throughout 12 provinces.
Vuihoc’s efforts clearly contribute to SDG target 1.4 by maintaining affordable and high-quality educational products, which keeps its product within reach for all students, especially amongst those in lower income households and Tier 2 and 3 cities. During 2023, Vuihoc saw an average of 104,000 active users every month with a high customer satisfaction score (net promoter score) of 87%. The company endeavours to meet the growing demands of Vietnam’s students and has launched online-merge-offline service.
In their mission to create educational equity and raise the average standard of learning, Vuihoc is eager to institutionalise ESG risk and impact management into their operations. Vuihoc’s staff, including its leadership team, attended a capacity building workshop as part of TNB Aura’s efforts to develop ESG risk management capabilities of its investees. The workshop was customised to Vuihoc’s specific circumstances and sustainability goals and resulted in concrete action plans to integrate ESG into their operations. This includes creating policy safeguards against corruption and data and privacy infringements, alongside increased efforts to measure the impact they generate amongst student beneficiaries.