Thread: So you want to earn millions of baht?

THE EDUCATION RACE: cram schools rake in billions

Published on November 06, 2005

Skilled tutors can demand exorbitant fees as students compete frantically for places at prestigious universities. If you’re a star tutor at one of Bangkok’s popular cram schools, you stand a good chance of earning millions of baht yearly.

Take Ajarn Ou, Ajarn Pisit, Khru Lilly and Khru P’Nan as examples. They’re so popular among high-school students wanting to pass entrance examinations to get into top state universities that they command top fees.

Students spend extra hours after school, sometimes on weekends, and extra money (from Bt2,000-3,000 to over Bt10,000 per course) to attend extra classes to improve their chances of getting a place in preferred colleges.

Cram school is such a brisk business that Ajarn Ou (real name: Uraiwan Sivakul ) recently decided to invest Bt256 million in a new cram-school outlet in central Bangkok to meet surging demand.

The overall tutorial business is estimated to be worth Bt5 billion a year, Ajarn Ou’s chemistry school topping the list with yearly incomes of more than Bt200 million.

It is followed by Applied Physics school with Bt100 million and Brain school, also Bt100 million.

To succeed, tutors must have proven techniques that can help students increase their scores. Competition for places at top universities is so fierce that success depends heavily on exam results.

For instance, Ajarn Pisit Wattanapadungsak, 46, of the Neo Physics centre, is known for his “make-it-easy� tutorials and special formulas that help students memorise complex theories.

Ajarn Pisit, who has been in business since 1978, recently rose to prominence after one of his students won a gold medal in the Physics Olympiad

“I need to be innovative and creative at all times. As for physics, it’s about turning the intangible into something relatively easy to understand and remember.

“So I’ve to start from the most fundamental level with a great deal of primer on maths, since it’s the foundation of physics, and on related calculation before we do any problem-solving.

“Students also come here to re-do their normal classes since many do not comprehend the subject matter entirely. Here we also focus on linking theories to our everyday life, as far as physics is concerned. This helps students to retain what they have learnt longer,� he said.

A graduate in physics from Chulalongkorn University, Pisit was himself a star pupil, gaining the highest scores in several national maths tests when he was in high school.

His 27-year-old school has witnessed an ever-rising demand by high-school students for his classes.

Competition is fierce indeed. Due to limited state budgets, top universities can allot only so many places to science, engineering and medicine.

In addition, the new entrance-exam system, in use since 1998, requires students to accumulate good scores throughout their final three years. This has also boosted demand for tutors.

Neo Physics has eight branches in Bangkok, Songkhla and Chon Buri.

Another star tutor, Khru P’Nan or Arisara Thanapakit, said students liked to take supplementary courses all year as they hoped to score higher to qualify for admission into prestigious institutions.

“Many students are hungry for knowledge as they feel the normal curriculum is not comprehensive enough to improve their academic skills. “We’re filling the gaps� said Arisara, who runs Enconcept, an English tutorial school.

Arisara, 29, is well known for her classes as she sings, dances and entertains while teaching.

“I want to break from traditional methods of teaching English. My technique consists of the four F’s: that’s Fun, Firm Foundation and Friendship.

“When students have fun, their natural learning process starts as they will remember things by heart, which is more lasting. I also try to create a friendly atmosphere so there can be deep interaction. In addition, I do a lot of acting in my classes to keep their attention on me, just as if they are watching a fun TV show,� she said.

Enconcept has sprouted 17 branches countrywide in the past 11 years.

But success did not come easy. She started the school when she was still a university student, majoring in Spanish.

Her first tutorial class had only seven students, and some of them were older than she. After many years of trial and error, she came up with the “edutainment� concept for teaching English.

In Thai-language tutorials, Khru Lilly, or Kitmanoch Rojanasupya, 37, is among the most successful, given her unusual methods.

In business for 13 years, Khru Lilly uses creative techniques to help students remember tough Thai grammatical rules.

“I often make students laugh by acting and singing to make grammar easier to grasp. It’s better than using old methods.

“It’s not surprising many students work so hard to get into top universities since it greatly impacts their future employment opportunities.

Pathomkanok Barnes

The Nation

exactly.
It seems that EVERYTHING has a higher priority than anything remotely academic, things where they may have to think for themselves and not just copy/cheat or have the answers spoon-fed to them.

She tells her students the answers to her upcoming tests, and advertises the fact in her regular classes. Pulls in at least 90k a month. Dubious ethics.

what's dubious about it? she should be fired.

AO

i'm not sure if she belongs in jail, but once she's been fired perhaps she should be forced to return any salary she has earned since she has had her private 'school'.