VietNamNet Bridge – More and more tuition centres have been set up to meet the increasingly high demand of people. However, the quality of the tuition centres remains problematic.

Tuition centres here, tuition centres there…

The tuition centre and vegetable shop

A lot of tuition centres have appeared on Ha Dinh, Duong Quang Ham and Tran Quoc Hoan streets to serve students who have demands for learning in the summer. One table, one chair, a fixed line and a corner on the pavement – these are all the things needed for a tuition centre.

A tuition centre in the area looks like a barber shop. If there was not the plate “Tuition Centre” which looked like the plate “Car keeping” popularly seen on streets, no one would think that this is a tuition centre.

The tuition centre at No 29 Tran Quoc Hoan street is also a vegetable and fruit shop. The owner of the centre, Tri, is a student who has just graduated from university and is now looking for a job. Tri said as he still cannot find a job, he has opened the tuition centre and earns VND3-4mil a month.

At another tuition centre on the same street, two beautiful receptionists said that teaching quality is the most important factor, while there is no need to pay too much money for office decorations. They said that the tuition centre is managed by a Mr Tuan, Lecturer at the Hanoi Pedagogical University. However, they could not say which subject Mr Tuan is teaching and which faculty Mr Tuan is working for.

Most of the tuition centres say that they are tuition centres belonging to the Hanoi Pedagogical University. However, according to Tran Linh Son, Chairman of the Hanoi Pedagogical University’s Students’ Association, the university has a tuition centre already run by the university’s students’ association, while other centres are violating the law by using the name of the university for their business.

Quality uncontrollable

When asked about the measures the local education and training department have been taking to settle the chaos of the market, Thai Van Khoa, Deputy Head of the Regular Training Division under the Hanoi Education and Training Department, said that it is really difficult to keep regular inspection over the centres as this requires inter-ministerial cooperation.

The centres all advertise that teachers at the centres are qualified, working for well-known schools and universities. However, any student, good or bad, can teach at these centres.

Nguyen Tri Phuong, a student at the Hanoi Foreign Language University, said that she knows a lot of students not studying at the pedagogical university that still call themselves students of the university to make learners think they are highly qualified.

Nguyen Duc Quy, a math student at the Hanoi University of Technology, said: “Tuition centres do not care about your qualifications. You can still become a tutor if you pay fees to tuition centres under the contracts signed between you and the centres.”

(Source: Dan tri)