Jess (Nanmanat) Patanaariyangkul

In our society today, getting into a top-ranked university has become a “be-all-end-all” of sorts. Certainly, having “Harvard” attached to your resume can get you a long way in life, whether you aspire to inherit your parents’ million-dollar business or work in Fortune 500 companies. This, however, has created a billion-dollar beast of its own: the booming tutoring industry. Take Thailand, for instance, if you have ever walked around Siam Square, you have probably seen at the very least three large, colorful billboards advertising tutoring services, promising top marks in standardized exams like the IELTS or SAT. Sure enough, the stats paint the picture even better; according to OPEC (Office of the Private Education Commission) 2,600 tutoring institutions were operating as of early 2020 in the nation; In the same year, the Kasikorn Research Centre reported that an average household spent 1.77 million baht every single semester on tutoring for their school-age child. Most of you may not think much of this, but if you have the money, go for it right? Well, that is exactly the problem. Not everyone has the money.