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Private tuition - boon or bane?
If it is not commercialised but geared to the upliftment of education in Mauritius, ‘private tuition’ is a virtue in itself. Besides, democracy wills it and pupils can, because of poor teaching in classrooms ‘if any’, have the option of quality teachers of their choice or whim. But they could also be cheated by faked marketing of labelled ex-teachers or ex-rectors of a star school or college.
However, to understand the private tuition crisis, it is imperative to see how free education is mismatched with its functional role. Free education, by virtue of its noble idealism professed to remove the inequalities, became the road to equality. School, as a catalyst, was expected to implement this dream by social engineering and mind-bending to shape a chosen form of egalitarian society and avoid human resource wastage.
Free education is not solely examination-centred. Its ultimate purpose is to stimulate pupils’ capacity to think, create, interact with others and use this capacity to become self-reliant. Free education takes into consideration the pupil’s potential, expectations, needs, how to live differently and contribute his share to society’s welfare. But functional anomalies of our school system have failed to weld together citizens who want nothing and those who run short of almost everything, into a socially and culturally cohesive whole.
The selection function at odds with this egalitarian mission, modelled on the pyramidal job structure, becomes the fundamental mechanism for assigning talent, according to demand and availability of jobs. It’s a slightly reformed colonial system valid only for an outdated CPE, SC and HSC pattern. The entrepreunial spirit is absent. It’s not the school that makes the difference but socio-economic stratification. Examination determines the content, not the socio-economic and cultural reality of Mauritian life especially at the crossroads of transition to meet the demand of globalisation and the InfoTech world.
The educational system, as such, creates a mechanism geared towards the society’s needs for rat race, status and greed. But the writing on the wall today is – pass CPE without stress. As a selection agent, schools do much of the task of job sorting much ahead of the time for job applications. The teachers know right from Std 1 who will pass and favour the elites while relegating less fortunate ones. The elite emerges naturally. It is not produced at 6, 7, or 8 years. The Germans failed to do so in the pre-war era. Singapore has a school for over-gifted children. The rat race continues to perpetuate the much-contested ‘inequalities’ – synonymous with wastage.
Grade-grabbers</B>
This link between rank and continued access to education holds schools hostage in the aggressive competition for future economic security and prestige. This contest transforms parents and their children into compulsive and anxious grade-grabbers. Consequently, parents enrol toddlers in the ‘right’ nursery schools as a head-start insurance. To obtain good grades, private tuition becomes the new hormone and gets the best who invests the most. The “win or lose” attitude not only narrows the scope of free education but it also misses one important goal: the dream of a balanced society, a society without marginalisation, exclusion, extreme poverty, etc.
Due to aggressive competition, even studious children worry about their ability to be the best and to be selected for the best scholarships and the most prestigious jobs later. The target now is A+. It is no surprise that many are forced to look for extra insurance, that magic pill - private tuition - that will make them great. For the middle classes, private tuition fees represent the largest share of expenditure. Too often, private tuition seems a reasonable way to satisfy those wants despite the accompanying pressures.
Aggressive competition fails to see the logic of the natural difference between students. This difference does not imply any supremacy of one over the other but rather the complementary roles of the rich diversity of human resources in life.
Kills idealism</B>
Competition professes only by the annihilation of all other classmates to reach the gold medals, scholarships and peak occupations. This race for a comfortable existence jeopardises man’s struggle for psychological survival. It raises the conflict between intrinsic and projected values. Sadly, even those who cannot afford life’s basic needs are caught in the net of private tuition. Ignorant that they need not be overqualified or better at what they do than anyone else, they join the “rat race”. However, they often fall halfway through or even at the starting point. Children rarely realise that they have no more time to play, relax, read, for other healthy interests and hobbies and social service. To develop the child’s personality is considered anti-educational and anti-competition.
Few realise that a significant share of household income is spent on supplementing the learning process through the institutionalised system of private tuition. It benefits only higher socio-economic groups.
Private tuition is exam-centred and acts as an examination guide and shortcut to success. It focuses on a very narrow area of achievement. It acts as a performance-enhancing therapy, which grants an unfair advantage to some over those who cannot afford it or benefit from it. The latter are those who are told what they should do before they can value what they are. Private tuition kills idealism in education.
Studying only through past-exam papers deprives students of the interests in the finer points of the subject they are supposed to study. They put aside its history, philosophy and relevance to practical aspects of life.
If grades are the end product, students show little or no interest in reading books which have stood the test of time. They do not make discoveries by themselves. How happy are they, though, to repeat stereotype answers of oft-repeated questions dished out as handouts by ‘no pass, no fee’ publicity?
Furthermore, this faulty educational system compels dedicated teachers at times to lower their pupils’ level to cater for the demands of the system. Any teacher with missionary zeal who strives to inculcate in pupils a love for a particular subject is hence ridiculed as archaic. He is considered unfit to meet the demand for a “marks culture” and train “robot-like” machines, not creative and thinking human beings.
It is generally admitted that good study habits are the best alternative to the private tuition malaise. If cultivated regularly, they could act not only as a preparation for life but also as a plan for interesting living. They should become a means of self-expression, liberation of the human spirit and imagination.
To be a successful pupil, one has to read other authors on a given subject, as this will provide a wider range of knowledge - far above copying notes and ready-made answers. Pedagogical authorities confirm that additional reading and personal notes help gather a variety of viewpoints on all questions. Such an approach removes preconceived ideas. (…)
Study habits should not be subject to moody whims. The workforce in daily activities avoids all waywardness. To go to school is both a right and a duty. The mood for studying has to be synchronised like other activities by improving studying habits.
These habits imply the proper attitude to study, not private tuition. Apprentices and trainees learn quicker and assimilate more of what they are taught than do students attending private tuition. Trainees are eager to learn a trade as that will help them earn more. Opportunities await them to apply immediately the new knowledge or skills imparted to them.
Aggressive competition and private tuition, through their strategy of winners and losers, gives birth to many dropouts, excluded and marginalised. Besides being a wastage of human resources, they are programmed for the frustration of having the less remunerative jobs or being unemployed. Society has to fund them or bear the brunt of vandalism and insecurity.They may come to think that they have few options other than the attraction of crime as the only way out of poverty. Unfortunately, the price is paid by jeopardising law and order. An elitist system endangers the peace and security of one and all.
It is imperative to frame a system that rules out private tuition abuse. But it is even more important to elevate the moral standards of the excluded. Most marginalised children come from a pathetic environment torn by divorce, domestic violence, alcoholism and poverty among others. Unfortunately, in no way has our educational system or private tuition “industry” been designed to meet these challenges.
<B>Yoonoos PEERBOCUS</B>
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