VietNamNet Bridge – Students cannot understand lessons when they are at
official school hours. However, they can easily understand what teachers say at
extracurricular classes. That explains why students have to attend private
tutoring hours.
At a meeting between the 150 secondary and high school students in HCM City and
the representatives from the city’s education and training departments in late
March 2013, the students frankly said they have to attend private tutoring
classes, if they want to obtain necessary knowledge.
Nguyen Le To Uyen, a student from the Bui Thi Xuan High School, said not all
students want to attend extra classes and not all of them are financially cable
enough to afford the classes, but they have to.
“We really cannot understand the lessons during the school hours. Therefore, we
have to go to private tutoring classes run by the same teachers, to be able to
obtain the knowledge,” Uyen explained.
“It’s quite a surprise that we don’t understand the teachers’ words at the
official lessons, but we can understand them well at the private tutoring
classes,” another student said.
LVL, a 10th grader in HCM City, also said that he did not intend to attend a
private tutoring class, but he has to change his mind. “My learning results got
worse because I did not understand the lessons. My friends then advised me to go
to a private tutoring class run by the same teacher,” he said.
This was really a right decision. “It is so easy to understand at the extra
class. The teacher has experience in explaining difficult problems, therefore, I
have got good marks for my learning record,” he said. Especially, the student
feels satisfactory about the extracurricular learning, because he can practice
many math questions at a higher difficulty level.
L and his friends have been whispering in each others’ ears that the teacher
deliberately does not show all necessary knowledge at the official classes.
Since students don’t understand the lessons, they would have to attend extra
classes and pay tuitions to the teacher.
Phan Thu Thao, whose daughter goes to the sixth grade in district 5 in HCM City,
confirmed that her daughter is bad at some subjects, because she cannot absorb
the knowledge provided by the teacher at the class.
The daughter told her mother that only the students attending the teacher’s
extra class can catch up with the curricula and get good marks.
“I have heard that the lessons were very terrible at the official class, but
they are very interesting at the extra class,” she said.
A student from Marie Curie High School, who attended the above said meeting
between students and the local education department, even posed a question that
if this should be blamed on the low income of teachers, which prompts them to
“play tricks” to collect extra money from students.
Teachers have of course denied the fact that they deliberately give enigmatic
lessons to students to force them to go to extra classes.
Tran Ai Viet, Headmaster of the Nguyen Huu Tho Secondary School in HCM City,
said he is not sure if all the students can understand the lessons right at the
class. Since every teacher has to take care for 45-50 students, he does not have
enough time to give concrete explanations to every student.
Meanwhile, since students have more time at extra classes, they can ask for the
explanations from teachers for better understanding.
Tien Phong