Students face high uni admission stress

SPECIAL REPORT: Tutoring costs climb as exam pressure piles on, writes Dumrongkiat Mala

Ayear ago, Ittiporn Chimngam had to wake up at 5.30am on weekends to catch the 6am train from Samut Songkhram to Bangkok to attend a famous cramming school. The numerous trips to Bangkok and expensive tuition fees paid off. Mr Ittiporn, now 18, is a freshman at Chulalongkorn University.

“Last year, I spent about 20,000 baht on tutoring, a large amount of money for my parents. My father had to work as a motorcycle taxi driver after work to earn extra income. However, the investment will pay off in the future as education is the most efficient way to climb the social ladder for someone like me,” he said.

His father, a worker at a frozen food factory, who earns about 13,000 baht a month, had to earn extra money to pay for his son’s tuition.

Mr Ittiporn believed conventional teaching methods in school would never earn him scores high enough in the university admission exam and he wouldn’t be able to compete with students from well-to-do families who had been attending tuition courses from a young age.

He isn’t the only student who believes in the benefits of cram schools.

Pongsatorn Nampila, 17, a 12th-grade student in Beung Kan province, said extra tutoring has become a trend among finalyear students at his school. Since there is no such tutoring school in his province, some of his friends travelled to nearby provinces for the extra tutoring.

“I want extra tutoring. Unfortunately my parents, both farmers, cannot afford the high fees,” he said.

He has made up his mind to attend an open university because he believes the lack of extra schooling means he wouldn’t stand a chance against other students competing to get into a public university.

“Students who aren’t enrolled in some form of cram school will feel a lack of competitive edge and feel insecure. “I’m the one of those students,” he said. Research by the Quality Learning Foundation (QLF) found that high-income or middle-income families spend about 62,000 to 65,000 baht a year to prepare a high-school aged child for the university admissions test.

A low-income family spends closer to 33,000 baht a year.

The cost of cram schools accounted for most of the expenses, with parents spending an average of 22,600 baht a year, according to QLF education expert Sompong Jitradub.

Application fees for direct-admission exams were the second largest expense.

The survey also claimed 60% of highschool students had attended private tutoring lessons.

QLF found students are spending 11% of their time at tutoring centres, studying up to seven subjects.

“Most parents perceive extra tuition as a form of safety net and something that is necessary because everyone else is doing it,” Mr Sompong said.

He said special tuition now seems necessary as direct-admission exams feature more advanced questions.

Mr Sompong said students have to deal with too many exams including O-Net, GAT/PAT, the national nine core subject examinations and direct-admission exams.

“You might be shocked to know that on average one student now has to take six to seven exams to be able to study at the higher education level. We’re putting too much pressure on them,” he said.

Ploenruedee Sriratanatapee, mother of two, is now spending at least 12,000 baht a month for her children to attend English and maths tutoring.

“I expect my children to have solid foundations in English and maths, so I’m willing to pay for extra classes. As a parent, I always provide the best for my kids,” she said.

In her view, conventional teachers do not use the right approaches, and tutoring schools teach students shortcuts to get high scores, something unconventional but effective.

Meanwhile, another recent study by the School of Economics at the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (UTCC) found that 52% of low-income families in Thailand need to borrow money for their children’s education.

Mr Sompong said the university admission process needs to be overhauled as it has created educational inequality.

“The application fee for each direct recruitment exam is now at least 700 baht, excluding travel and accommodation, so the more that students take the exams the higher the burden on parents,” he said.

Mr Sompong urged public universities to consider changing admission standards as the current process is too physically and psychologically exhausting for students.

“Our educational institutes should consider basing admission decisions, in part, upon a student’s development of personal talent. Placing an emphasis on extracurricular achievements will relieve the stress of students and create well-rounded students,” he said.

This criteria would encourage students to spend time developing personal skills rather than spending all of their afterschool hours at tutoring schools, he said.