LookAtVietnam – Tutoring centres have been mushrooming after MOET tightened regulations on afterschool lessons.

The headquarter of DDS-K tutoring centre

Who are the tutors?

At Tan Viet Tutoring Centre, Tien Phong reporters easily registered to work as tutors. They were not required to provide any documents to prove their degrees and qualification.

Ten other tutoring centres also did not ask for identity papers. Some other centres even accepted tutors through registration over the phone.

D. Lam, a student of Danang Polytechnic University, lost his job as a tutor after two weeks because the centre lied to parents.

“It was not my fault,” Lam complained. “The tutoring centre told the student’s parents that I am a student of the University of Education, and I did not correct the words.”

Tutors also complain that the centres falsely promise high salaries and low brokerage fees.

Typically, tutors must pay high brokerage fees, up to half of the first month’s pay, to land a good job. Meanwhile, reimbursements are small if contracts between parents and the tutoring centre are broken.

Government permission?

Under current law, individuals and institutions must obtain a license to set up a job centre from their local Department of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs. Tutoring centres arrange jobs for tutors and thus can be defined as job centres.

Tien Phong newspaper quoted Phan Van Son from the Danang department as stating that they only license job centres and that tutoring centres are not within their power.

Most Danang tutoring centres do not have a license to operate. DDS-K tutoring centre, for example, does not have any documents and neither do Le Quy Don and Thanh Tai tutoring centres.

The DDS-K owner admitted that he needs permission from a government agency, but he does not know with whom to register.

No legal document clearly stipulates where tutoring centres go for permission to operate. Circular No. 20 dated June 22, 2005 by the Ministry of Labour, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) set procedures to establish and operate job centres, but made no mention of tutoring centres.

VietNamNet/TP