It’s not difficult to find the poor students who came
to HCM City to attend the university entrance exams. Free lodgings, parishes,
temples or houses of good landlords are now full of students, who have to go to
big cities to attend exams with borrowed money.

Perturbation fills poor students’ mind

To Thi Bich Ngoc

Right after arriving at the bus station at the Hang Xanh crossroad in HCM
City, Nguyen Thi Hong from Lam Dong province luckily met volunteer students, who
met and gave consultancy about free lodging. It cost her 170,000 dong to take a
coach in Lam Dong to HCM City, and then take a bus and a taxi motorbike to the
lodging.

Like other 200 poor students, Hong can get a bed at the free lodgings at
Xay Dung Parish.

Hong said that she has registered to take the exams to the HCM City
Finance and Marketing University, one of the schools which have the highest
competition ratio in the south. The total number of students registering to
attend exams to the university has reached 26,220, while the school will accept
1400 students only. As such, Hong will have to compete with 18 other students to
obtain a seat at the university.

Meanwhile, international press agencies reported that the competition
ratio of the famous US Harvard University was 1/6.9.

“I do not think that I will pass the exams, but studying at university
level is my biggest dream in my life. Therefore, I must attend the exams,” Hong
said. “If I fail the exams this year, I will repeat the exams the next year”.

Hong also said that she will attend the entrance exams to junior colleges
which will come several days later after the university entrance exams. “If
there are no free lodgings, I will have to return to my home village to wait for
the next exams, because I do not have money to stay in the big city,” she said.

She related that 65 percent of her high school classmates plan to attend
university entrance exams, but she thinks only a few will pass the exams. “If I
pass the exams, my parents will have to take many extra works to get money to
fund my study,” she said.

To Thi Bich Ngoc from Dong Nai province has also registered to study at
the HCM City University for Finance and Marketing. She said that she has spent
27,000 dong to take a bus from Dong Nai to HCM City, even though she does not
think she would pass the exams.

“80 percent of students in my class want to study further at universities,
but I think only 20 percent of them can pass the exams. However, none of us
wants to go to vocational schools,” she said. “Universities are always better
than vocational schools”.

Children attend university entrance exams – the exploit of the poor

Like Hong and Ngoc, Mai Quoc Viet from Gia Lai province has also been
nurturing the hope of passing the university entrance exams. After arriving in
HCM City, Viet was luckily led to Nguyen Thi Quan’s house in Binh Thanh
district, where he can stay for free on the exam days.

In general, a room in HCM City has the rent of 180,000-210,000 dong a day.
Therefore, Viet feels lucky because he can save nearly one million dong in
rental during the exam days.

“My mother does not want me to follow her to do agricultural works,
because the works cannot bring enough money. I wish I can study at universities
and get a job as an officer. If so, my parents will be proud of me,” he said.

“My parents have decided that I must study at universities or junior
colleges. Therefore, if I fail the exams, I will repeat the exams the next
years,” he added.

Viet’s mother collects farm produce from farmers to sell to enterprises,
while Viet’s father carries goods to enterprises. Sometimes Viet helps the
parents in their works, but he admitted that he really does not want to do the
works.

Having children attending university entrance exams is really the
“miracle” of the poor families. Nha, the mother of Kieu Thi Thu On, a Cham
minority woman, said: “Only by studying at universities, will her life become
better than mine”.

Huong Giang