It is very likely that two separate exams, the school final exam and university entrance exam, will be merged into one in 2010. Therefore, it is possible that this university entrance exam preparation season will be the last.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan: “Exam preparation centres will exist until the two-exam scheme is applied.”

In general, exam preparation centres begin receiving students for university entrance exam preparation classes right after Tet and open more intensive preparation classes in June, one month before the university entrance exam is held.

The Vinh Vien Exam Preparation Centre in HCM City has reported the decrease of 20 percent in number of students for post-Tet classes, while Alpha Centre under the HCM City University of Education has reported the sharper decrease of 70-80 percent and the centre under the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities, a 30 percent decrease in comparison with last year.

At the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities exam preparation centre at No 45 Dinh Tien Hoang, only five classrooms are lit up in the evening this year, which is quite different from last year, when all the classrooms of B building were full of students.

A lot of exam preparation centres, especially ones specialising in teaching social sciences, have reportedly shut down because of lack of students.

A series of other well-known exam preparation centres have also shut down because of lack of students, including the ones under the HCM City Economics University, HCM City University of Education and HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Explaining the sharp falls of numbers of trainees, directors of exam preparation centres say that since universities are set up in nearly all localities, students nowadays do not have to flock to big cities to sit for exam preparation classes anymore.

Exam preparation centres have been a headache for the Ministry of Education and Training, with students running hither and thither to attend exam preparation classes, many of which are of doubtful quality. Speaking before the National Assembly’s ongoing session, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Thien Nhan, while trying to persuade the National Assembly to ratify the plan on the single exam, said: “Exam preparation centres will exist until the two-exam scheme is applied.”

What about the future of exam preparation centres?

Meanwhile, exam preparation centres are still optimistic about their future.

Nguyen Huu Quang, Director of Khai Sang Exam Preparation Centre, said optimistically: “The number of students is expected to decrease next year, but this is what we anticipated when setting up the centre,” he said.

“We will still exist and keep operating. If two exams are merged into one, students will not learn by A, B or C groups anymore; we will teach students by subjects,” he said.

He added that students will still need to focus on learning the most important subjects, because the results of the exam will decide whether they can get into university. This means that in all cases, exam preparation centres will have students.

VietNamNet/VNE, TP