‘Tuition helps weak students’
Nirmala Babu also had a similar opinion. “There are no good teachers in place, no proper infrastructure in place, the strength of the class is beyond acceptable limits, the pace of lessons in higher classes is supersonic and with private tuition providing relief, especially to the average and below average students, even that is now hindered.”
A private tutor, who taught chemistry to students, was able to shed more light on this, saying, “There have been times when I have sat with students until the late hours of the night to make them understand a subject. For a teacher to succeed, there must be two main things – the motivation to teach and proper compensation. The amount of time being given to students in schools is simply not enough because the portion of the syllabus is quite lengthy and deep, and takes time to understand.”
Schoolteachers who organised private tuition also came forward to speak on the subject. Although the Board of Directors has said that complementary classes for students will be held from October 1 onwards, they said the demand for tuition will continue to be there.
One teacher who taught mathematics said, “If parents pull their students out of tuition, what will happen to their marks? The admission criteria in universities are getting stricter and stricter and no one wants to miss out on good education. The board exams are only some six months away and preparations for them have already begun. There will be very few people who will stop tuition because they know of the consequences that will have.”
Another teacher said salaries paid to Indian schoolteachers were a far cry from those offered to teachers in international schools.
“This may not be something everyone likes to hear, but a lot of people do not know just how underpaid we are. In Europe, North America and Australia, the profession is revered enough to get a decent pay and given that we have the skills to teach, this is the only alternative we have. Tuition also encourages those who don’t do well to come to a level that is on par with others, and this gives them a tremendous confidence boost.”