Tuitionalisation of education : Private Tuition Limited
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: December 19 2011 -

A classroom at Moirang Multipurpose Higher Secondary School, Moirang :: Pix by Shanjoy Mairembam

Education may ultimately be understood as Private Tuition Limited, if the sight of parents and guardians waiting patiently for their children outside any tuition centre or private coaching centre is any indication. The objective of such a culture must be plain and easy to understand.

Score well for ultimately the marks scored in the examination is going to decide whether one can enter the hallowed portals of the institution one has in mind or not. In the absence of a system or a mechanism to test the knowledge of a student in place, the marks scored in the Board examinations, either at the Class X or Class XII stage is generally taken as the yardstick to pick out the grains from the chaffs or the brains from the brawns and accordingly set down the eligibility criteria for admission.

Remember the 100 pc benchmark set by a reputed college in Delhi University for admission to its honours degree course last year ?

With teachers in high schools and higher secondary schools doing everything except teach or impart knowledge to the students, tutors generally find that they have a lot of work to do and with double income nuclear family becoming the structure of the most basic unit in society, private tuition has come to replace parental guidance in doing the homeworks or home assignments of the students.

With demands for good schools increasing in tandem with the increased upward mobility of the people, the pressure on the already available institutions can be seen most prominently on the number of students squeezed inside a classroom so much so that the teacher to students ratio inside a classroom may be at an absurd 1 : 65 or sometimes even 1 : 75 anytime of the day or year.

Add the growing aspirations of the parents and guardians and whose mindsets and views towards the performances of their children and ward are again seen and understood only in the context of the marks the children score and one will get a fair idea of the factors that have combined together to prepare the ground for the culture of private tuition to roost and bloom.

By itself private tuition should not be such a bad idea at all. It is a method to help out children who may have some difficulty in keeping up with their classmates and it may also help children who may not have received the needed attention inside the class room.

In many ways it may also instil a sense of when to keep aside a certain time of the day for studies, especially in the backdrop of the nuclear family structure and where both parents go out to work, having not enough time to spend with their children.

However when tuition class becomes the norm for all children, all with the intention of merely ‘maxing’ in the examination, then maybe the time has come for all parents, guardians, teachers and school authorities to take a step back and introspect deeply.

Are students sent to private tuition classes to gain knowledge, to develop as a human being where the emotional quotient of the children can be met or is it just another mechanism to ‘max’ in the examination ?

Is it a case of students forced to attend tuition classes just to be in the league with their friends or is it something more substantial ? Or does the whole culture of private tuition rests on the premise of a faulty education system ?

Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal has already gone ahead and done away with the marking system in the Class X and Class XII examination, at least in all educational institutions affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education, Delhi and introduced the grading system.

However the fact that this has not led to a decrease in the number of students opting for tuition classes, even from schools affiliated to the CBSE in Manipur tells many a story and this should negate the thought process that the culture of private tuition rests on the education system.

Education is yet to be corporatised but it certainly has become ‘tuitionalised.’ It is up to the adults of society if they have it in them to take the call or not.