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Private tuition offers 'shortcut' to top colleges —and four-star hotel stay
These tuition services offer various programs, starting from the lowest priced that offer regular classes of 25 students to intensive camps in which students stay at hotels or apartments to focus on studying for weeks.
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Better together: Students of SMA Taman Siswa state senior high school in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, study together to prepare for national exams in this file photo. Students aspiring to enroll in their dream universities often resort to taking extra classes provided by school or private institutions. (Warta Kota/Angga Bhagya Nugraha)
T
aking bimbel (private tuition) was normal for Triana Deninta Nurfadhillah or Tia, a senior high school student in Sidoarjo, East Java, who will be enrolling at her dream campus of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta in August.
The 18-year-old spent her senior year taking a three-and-a-half hour classes after school twice a week at one of the most established private tuition providers in the country.
The full-year program, which costs Rp 7 million (US$495), helped her prepare for the national exams and the state university entrance test (SBMPTN).
Tia was by no means a first-timer when it came to bimbel. She had enrolled at the same private tuition provider four years prior, when she was aiming for a spot at a top senior high school in Sidoarjo, and even earlier, when she was in the sixth grade of elementary school preparing to sit the national exams.
“It was exhausting to be honest, but the preparatory classes provided by my school were not enough, so I felt the need to sign up for bimbel. Bimbel also provided monthly mock exams, unlike my school,” Tia said.
She said all of her friends had used similar tuition services, most of them preferring to enroll at those located within walking distance from their school.
One of her friends had even spent Rp 35 million on a more intensive program with the same tuition provider to get into medical school, she said.
