VietNamNet Bridge – Extra classes are the main source of income for many teachers. In exam season, a teacher has 4-6 extra teaching shifts a day.

“I work hard these days. The university entrance exams would come in just 4 months, so the demand is very high. I have some 5 teaching shifts a day,” said a teacher, who runs an exam preparation class in district 5 in HCM City.

“The income from extra classes is big enough for me to fund my son’s university study in the US. My colleagues can buy the apartments in the central area of the city worth billions of dong,” he said.

The teacher revealed that he collects VND200,000 from every student for a 2-hour teaching shift. Meanwhile, thousands of students flock to university entrance exam preparation classes every season. Especially, prestigious teachers would require more than VND200,000 for their teaching.

Thanh Nam, a student in HCM City, said he had to pay VND4 million for 20 lessons to go to a class with more than 100 students. Despite the high fee, Nam feels satisfactory about the lessons.

“The main lecturer here is the dean of math faculty of a big university. Therefore, his explanations are easy to understand,” he said.

Though Bao Hoa is a student of a school for the gifted, he still thinks that he needs to attend private tutoring classes to prepare for the university entrance exams.

“I have been going to T’s class in district 10 for two years. The class is full because the teacher is prestigious. As far as I know, he has 5-6 teaching shifts a day,” Hoa said. The classrooms are in teacher T’s house; therefore, it does not take T much time on the way.

When asked why they want to study with some teachers, but not the others, students said that they choose the teachers with good profiles and achievements.

Mai Phuong Thao, a student of a high school in Tan Binh district in HCM City, said she decided to attend the class because she knows the teacher had a student who came first at the university entrance exams last year.

In general, there are tens of students in every exam preparation class. However, in the classes run by prestigious teachers, there could be hundreds of students. With VND4-6 million collected from every student, the teachers can earn billions of dong every year.

Going to exam preparation classes is the choice of nearly all students, including the ones from the schools for the gifted or the ones with good learning capability.

Tran Hung Dat, a student of the HCM City National University, said high school students regularly keep contacts with the students from the high schools for the gifted to ask for the information about prestigious teachers.

The students have the lists of good teachers and their profiles for consideration. Some students want to study with many teachers at the same time to have more experience. In general, the exam preparation classes open in early March.

However, only the students from well off families can attend the classes because of the high fees.

Deputy Minister of Education and Training--Nguyen Vinh Hien, said costly lessons don’t always bring high results to examinees. A lot of students who came first from the university entrance exams said they did not attend private tutoring classes because they were from poor families.

Dan Viet