By IMNA:
This year students who hope to increase their likelihood of passing the final year’s 10th grade exam will have to pay more then in years prior, as prices for all hostels has increased. Hostels’ are also allowing students to enrollee earlier then last year.
Last academic year, students who lived hostels in Mon State paid approximately 2 million kyat (1,953 USD) while students who attended more famous hostels, like Mudon’s Daw Than Myit hostel, paid around 2.7 million kyat (2,636 USD). Now each entering student will have to pay nearly 2.3 million kyat (2,246 USD) for a more basic hostel or 3 million kyat (2,929 USD) for a hostel like Daw Than Myit.
Student hostels are popular in Mudon township, Ye township and throughout Mon state as a means to ensure success during the crucial final exams. The hostels house and feeds students for one year, while providing them with additional study services via teachers or professor hired on after hours to tutor students in each subject they study in.
Hostels prices vary based on their facilities and the quality and number of tutors available. The best hostels are able to draw university professors who will travel and tutor for the evening before returning home.
“At a prestigious hostel the students have to pay about 3.0 million for a year, but other hostel will not charge as much like that because it is depends on the percentage [of attending students] who passed [their 10th grade exams],” a student’s mother who lives in Mudon explained. “The families who have more money can send their children to a prestigious hostel, but some [parents] can’t send them because of money problems –they just can send their child to a normal hostel.”
After students’ 9th grade exams, hostel owners begin accepting students who will want to live in hostel for the duration of the 10th grade 2010-2011 academic year.
“We finished the 10th grade exam on March 19th and the hostel owner started accepting students during that week,” said a 10th grade student. “So for students who have just taken the 9th grade exam, some are already registered [at out hostel].”
Last year at the Dar Than Myit hostel in Mudon town about 200 students registered for the year. According to a student this year its still not clear how the numbers of students will attend because they have not yet reached the deadline for registration. “If we register, the hostel owner will take half our money first and then we can give the other half at the end of year, but if we have [all of] it, we can just pay at one time,” a Mudon student explained.
According to a hostel owner increasing numbers of students and parents want to enroll in the more prestigious hostels. These schools often draw better tutors and have higher rates of students passing 10th grade exams. The hostel owner believes this is why hostel owners have been able to raise prices this year.
Last year hostel attendance was down as families struggled to pay the fees of millions of kyat due to the global economic crisis.
