VietNamNet Bridge – The exam season has kicked off. Students and their relatives have begun flocking to big cities where they are seeking lodgings for the days they take the university entrance exams.

At bus station

Huong said that she saw many young people in blue shirts (student volunteers wear blue uniforms), but she was so discomposed that she could not tell the difference between student volunteers and taxi motorbike drivers.

That was also the feeling of several other thousand students and their relatives, who arrived at Giap Bat bus station on July 1.

Nguyen Tat Thanh, director of the company that manages Giap Bat bus station, said that there were 170 taxi motorbike drivers who also wore blue shirts at the bus station. Moreover, there were some 200 student volunteers from 10 universities and colleges and some 300 freelance taxi motorbike drivers.

On taxi motorbikes

Lodging fees skyrocketing

The start of the exam season can also be marked by the fact that lodging fees have been increasing dramatically.

On the road to the Thu Duc university village in HCM City, one can see a lot of plates inviting students to hire rooms at boarding houses. Many lodgings advertise that they can offer quiet atmosphere and air conditioners to students.

Even Alpha foreign language centre has shifted to a new business. As the number of students for foreign language classes is low in summer, the centre has shifted to rent rooms during exam days.

Students have to pay 200,000 per student per 12-40 square metre room per day.

Though the renting fee proves to be very expensive, the centre still has found clients for its five rooms.

The ‘boarding house’ at the back of the centre, which was in fact a karaoke shop, has reported that five of the six air conditioned rooms have been leased. The leasing fee here is 700,000 dong per student for 3-4 days (until students finish exams).

In the areas which gather many universities, including ones in districts 5, 10 and 3, the room renting fees have increased by nearly ten times to 150,000 dong per day.

Meanwhile, lodging owners have warned that leasing fees will increase further by two or three times more in one or two days, when more students flock to cities to attend exams.

The HCM City National University’s dormitory is now offering 3,000 accommodations for students and their parents at 10-20,000 dong per day.

VietNamNet/VNE, DT