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The official line is that tuitions are bad for you; why should you need them if you are being taught at school? Many members of the government education department condemn tuitions also and whenever there is a seminar or conference involving teachers, some official gets up and makes it a point to say that tuition culture should be abolished.
But reality is very different as you and I know. Almost every student has at one time or another, taken tuitions for at least one subject and many students take regular tuitions for up to five subjects during exam time.
Many students hate taking tuitions; you get really tired at school and the last thing you want to do after 2pm is drag yourself to someone's house and sit there for an hour doing more study. You are falling asleep, you are hungry and you are too shy to ask where the bathroom is. Even if you do know where the bathroom is, if you have an upset stomach or aren't feeling well, the last thing you want to do is excuse yourself and go running to the toilet clutching your gut.
Many parents force their children to take tuitions and when you discover that the teacher isn't good anyway you know that you are just wasting your time and your parents' money. But they just won't listen. But even if you hate taking tuitions sometimes your teacher at school is so bad that you have to. And sometimes you get really scared because everyone else is going to this tuition teacher and you think you'll fail if you get left out.
Ahmed believes that tuitions are not necessary, except when the syllabus is not being completed at school - then the student has no choice. He prefers self-study to tuitions: "Tuitions are time-consuming and it's tough to take out time for them," he said.
Tuitions are also very expensive and after your parents pay your school fees and other expenses, tuitions really break the bank. "My parents don't allow me to go to coaching centres, even though there are so many near my house," said one O-Level student. "So I have home tutors for six subjects. We can't afford it. I pay Rs2,000 per subject, except for Math which is Rs2,500. But I have no other choice. I can't do without them."
Many parents are nervous about tuition centres which are very common now. Parents feel that their child will be distracted, not get enough individual attention and will be taught by a bad teacher who will just scam them for the money. They also worry that children just go to these centres to hook up; that tuition centres are a big dating scene.
However, one teacher who has run a tuition centre for a long time, said that tuition centres aren't as bad as parents make them out to be. He said that students these days are under a lot of pressure and need an informal non-school place to hang out and study at the same time. He thinks that a tuition centre is sometimes a better place for students to go to than be on the streets or in cafés where there is no adult supervision. At least at the centre no bad behaviour will be tolerated because it is bad for business. Plus students have been in a disciplined environment for half the day at school and should be allowed to relax also. He also said that some students get very isolated at home where they have a lot of problems and that they get to interact and relax with other students at tuition centres where they can make friends with students from other schools.
And sometimes a student may really need extra help in a subject if they are either lagging behind at school or the teacher is really bad there. Haya, an A-level student, thinks tuitions are necessary as you go up the academic ladder. She takes online tutorials, which are free and save her time. "Tutors give you individual attention, which is good," she said. "School teachers rarely do that. What can students do when concepts are not explained clearly at school?"
Tuitions are also necessary for the tuition teacher. Many teachers are paid very poorly at school and have families to support, which is why they decide to start giving tuitions. Tuitions is also a way for educated housewives to get some work if their husbands don't let them work outside the house.
It would be difficult to dismiss tuitions and tuition centres outright as good or bad; the world simply doesn't work that way, in black or white. Students, their parents and teachers who wish to give tuitions all have the fundamental right to pursue what they feel is right for themselves. After all, education means knowing or finding out what is best for us and how to live a better life.
— The Dawn
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