University entrance exam preparation centres in HCM City complain that they have very few students these days with the number of students down by 80%, which makes their business unprofitable.

The university entrance exam preparation centre is quiet

The staff told me to leave my mobile phone number so that she could call me later if more students registered and the centre opened classes.

Centres for university entrance exam preparation have become less bustling in recent years. Several years ago, students flocked to cities after Tet to attend preparatory classes for university entrance exams which take place in July. However, the situation is quite different this year: only several students are asking for information about extra classes.

Alpha, one of the centres, said that last year it incurred the loss of several hundred million VND due to decreased enrollment. Meanwhile, there have been only 100 students registering for medium-term classes at the centre so far this year, a decrease of 600 students in comparison with the unprofitable 2008.

The situation seems to be more serious at Gia Dinh Continuing Education Centre. Only 45 students have registered for classes, both medium- and long-term classes, while the figure was over 300 last year.

A staff of Do Thanh Centre related that though last year was considered unprofitable, the centre still attracted 400 students. Meanwhile, to date, the centre has attracted only 70 this year. “We may have to shut down next year,” he said.

As exam preparation centres have been unprofitable, they have been trying to practice thrift by cutting down expenses on advertising.

No green and red banderoles hang over streets and centres, and no girl walking along streets and delivering leaflets can be seen these days.

A lot of reasons have been cited to explain the quietness at university entrance preparation centres. Some experts say that the exam questions nowadays are not overly difficult, and that students only need to know the knowledge they get at school well to be able to pass the university entrance exams.

Moreover,the Ministry of Education and Training has decided that only one national exam will be organised as of 2010 instead of two – the high school final exams and university entrance exams.

A father, who has a son studying at Gia Dinh High School, said that his son can prepare for the exams with teachers at his school already. Therefore, his son does not intend to attend extra classes anymore.

Meanwhile, others believe that students nowadays have become ‘wiser’, and they do not try to pass the exams to get into university at any cost. They have many other choices to attain their goals: they can study at junior colleges first, and then transfer to the university level.

Nguyen Quoc Cuong, an official of the Ministry of Education and Training’s Representative Office in HCM City, said that previously, students had only once choice – state-owned universities. Meanwhile, they now have many other choices: private-run universities, vocational schools and junior colleges. All of these paths can lead to university degrees.

Besides, experts also say that the economic difficulties have also kept students away from extra classes. A lot of students have decided to prepare for the exams themselves rather than spend a lot of money on extra classes.

Doan Truc