VietNamNet Bridge – Private-run aptitude development centres have been mushrooming recently, trying to lure children with attractive advertisements and interesting subjects; but they have set exorbitant fees.

The dance class

More and more private-run aptitude development centres have been established recently. The centres are not able to teach 50 subjects like the Hanoi Children’s Palace or teach some ten subjects like district cultural houses. They only focus on five to ten subjects, but the subjects are all ‘fashionable’: Among them are such courses as ‘living skills’, ‘eloquence’ and ‘fashion performance’.

Hanoi-Fastrackids Centre on Yet Kieu street has a 2-year training course which provides lessons in 12 themes, from mathematics, creative sciences to astronomy. The training course is designed for children between three and eight.

Eveil Centre offers to train children in subjects like speech-making, music appreciation, sports dance, French language, affirming that by studying at the centre, children will have a chance to develop their talents in a natural way.

Kindsfun Centre on Ly Nam De street is enrolling children for hip-hop ad break dancing, origami (Japanese paper folding) and musical appreciation. It commits that after just 12 lessons, even 4-year old children will have a sense of the aesthetics of music.

Sunny Smiles has launched a training programme which teaches children ways of thinking and behaving based on moral values like peace, love, respect and tolerance.

Tuition fees sky high

As the teaching subjects at the centres are attractive and fashionable, the tuition fees set by the centres are sky high. While the Hanoi Children’s Palace charges 15-20,000 dong per lesson, private centre tuition fees are 7-8 times higher.

The tuition fee for musical appreciation classes for 18-month old children at Sol-art centre is $100 (10 lessons). At Kidsfun, it is 80,000 dong per lesson and 960,000 per course (12 lessons).

However, high tuition fees do not necessarily mean high-quality lessons.

Most centres only focus on ‘fashionable’ subjects, while ignoring traditional art subjects. Only a few centres enroll students for traditional music classes like ty ba, bau and nhi musical instruments. Meanwhile, as their material facilities remain poor, the centres do not have large playing fields to open sports classes like football, badminton, volleyball and basketball, which many children like.

VietNamNet/LD