Financial burden on parents : Culture of private tuition
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: May 23 2017 -

In a few days time from now the Council of Higher Secondary Education, Manipur and the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur would have announced the results of the Class XII and Class X board examinations.

Nothing extraordinary here, for this has been the annual affair every year and like the previous years one can expect the repetition of the past.

As in the past, private schools will surely outdo the institutions under the Government and while much have been said and lamented about the poor performance of Government schools, year after year, there is nothing to suggest that things will take a turn for the better anytime soon.

So it will be private schools this year again and while no one will grudge the excellent showing of the private institutions, one may as well raise the question on the burden being placed on the parents, guardians and elders of the family whose children are to appear for the Class X and Class XII board examinations.

A point which has been raised many times in this column, but discouraging to note that not much thought seems to have been given to this point.

With most of the private schools not willing to pay the teachers commensurate with the demand of the time, teachers invariably have to fall back on private tuitions to make up for the shortfall.

The unwillingness of private schools to pay the needed salary to the teachers, means that it is the parents and elders of the family who have to bear the brunt.

This can easily be seen in the manner in which parents have to rush from one teacher to the other to send their children for private tuition, entailing not only heavy expenses but also their time and labour.

And obviously with private school teachers not getting the required pay, their attention is more on private tuitions.

So parents have to make up for the unwillingness of the schools to pay the needed salaries to the teachers.

If teachers pay the needed attention to their teaching in the classrooms and if students are made to understand that not all of them really need private tuition, then this would go a long way in easing the burden on the parents.

This is about the financial burden that parents and guardians have to bear and this is not only at the time when students have to appear for their board exams, but long before this and it is only right that some conscientious question, be raised on why private tuition has become necessary for all the students.

Ideally private tuitions should be meant for the students who are academically weaker than the rest and it should be to help them cope with the stress and anxious days that come before appearing for the board exams.

Hope the day comes when some meaningful thought is given to this. Apart from bearing the burden of private tuitions, majority of the students who pass the Class XII examinations will look beyond Manipur to continue their higher studies.

Not all students will get into medical and engineering schools and their obvious destinations will be colleges located outside the State.

For parents who are well off, this should not pose much of a problem, but not all parents are well off but yet at the same time all parents would want to give the best to their children.

It is here some serious thoughts ought to be given to the question of whether students are given the opportunity to pursue their studies without hindrances here and this question should concern all, the NGOs, the student organisations and the Government.