VietNamNet Bridge – Since primary school teachers cannot provide private tutoring service, the job has been undertaken by university students. However, the quality of the service is problematic.

High supply meets high demand

The owner of a private tutoring center on Chua Lang Street in Hanoi said the demand is always very high, especially from primary school students. Urban parents tend to hire private tutors to help their children review the lessons, because they think the official lessons at school are not enough.

The students from the Hanoi University Education prove to be the most wanted tutors, simply because they are believed to have good teaching skills.

Mai Thu Hue, whose daughter goes to the Dai Kim Primary School, said she decided to hire a tutor who is a student of the Hanoi University Education, because teaching is the training major of the student.

“No need to worry about the qualification of the tutor. A person with university degree must be more qualified than enough to teach a primary school student, who just learns to do the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division,” Hue said.

The same thought is shared by most of the parents. However, they are wrong. In fact, the quality of private tutoring is uncontrollable.

A student from the Hanoi National University said when she came to a private tutoring center to look for a job, she only had to answer some questions about her training major and where she studied, while she did not have to show the documents to prove her qualification.

“The owner of the center told me that I should introduce myself as a student of the Hanoi University of Education instead of the Hanoi National University, because parents prefer the tutors with good teaching skills,” she said.

It is understandable why private tutoring centers try to attract more university students looking for tutoring jobs. In general, every student has to pay the commission of 50 percent of the first-month salary (VND600,000 on average) to the centers. This means that the more students the centers can attract, the bigger profits they can make.

Tutors, or those who do school work for students?

Nguyen Minh Phuong, a third grader of the Nhat Tan Primary School in Tay Ho district said she likes her tutor very much. “Nhan, my tutor, always does school work for me, especially the essays,” Phuong explained.

Since it always takes Phuong a lot of time to write an essay, Phuong asks Nhan do this for her. This benefits both Phuong and Nhan. Phuong has good school works to submit to teachers and receive high marks, while Nhan does not have to spend much time to explain things to Phuong.  

Especially, Nhan is a good teacher in the eyes of Phuong’s parents, because their daughter has made a considerable progress in her learning since the day she began learning with the tutor.

Associate Professor Van Nhu Cuong, Headmaster of the Luong The Vinh people founded High School, a well-known educator, warned that tutor and housemaids are the two biggest dangers for the youth nowadays. Cuong said that children nowadays are getting lazy in working and learning.

Tien Phong