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.
Why Tutoring?
As many of you know, tutoring comes with obvious benefits. What is better than having a personal teacher who will cater to your every wants and needs or a structured test prep program that can cut your effort down by half? Well, on a more serious note, the allure of tutoring extends far beyond those. First, there are different kinds of tutoring, and targeted programs, in particular, give students a massive advantage in applying to universities. These programs are often extremely expensive, but parents are willing to pay, for the promise of their children getting that Ivy League stamp on their future resumes, no less. However, this creates a certain inequality, particularly for those applying to competitive Thai programs like CICM, as they tend to be more affordable to average families. Inevitably, wealthier students will be accepted into these schools more due to a variety of interview preparation sessions, invaluable test techniques, and exclusive insights from their tutors, even though they were made for “everyone.”
Problems with Tutoring
At first glance, the impact of more wealthy students attending elite institutions may seem minuscule; haven’t they been doing so for generations? Well, yes, and income equality in Thailand has constantly been increasing. In other words, the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Since education is a stepstone to a decent-paying job for most, this is devastating. Youths in low-income families typically aspire for higher-paying careers, such as doctor or dentist, although without tutoring, they have virtually no chance of achieving this goal. Tutoring has become a necessity, a tall fence guarding disadvantaged students against gaining a better quality of life. But tutoring is not the root of the problem, the educational system is. If education is meant to be fair and equal for everyone, why must tutoring be needed at all?
The Path Forward
Since revamping the Thai educational system appears farfetched, it is not difficult to deduce that the only possible path forward is to make tutoring more accessible. This will not solve the problem in the long term, but it will at least mitigate it. Now more than ever, we need educational professionals to step up and give back to the communities that need them. With the internet connecting nearly the whole world, initiatives can be set up easily. Remember, all it takes is one spark.
— Writer Nanmanat Patanaariyangkul can be reached at jesspat0708@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram @jessxpat
