Private tuition classes to be banned during school hours
Conducting of private tuition classes will be prohibited from 7.30 am to 1.30 pm on all school days shortly, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam said and he will seek the Cabinet approval next week for the purpose. Minister Kariyawasama said attending tuition classes from the kindergarten level to grade 13 has become almost a fashion rather than a learning exercise in many instances and educationalists had termed this as a ‘Necessary Evil’. “We have obtained the views of all stakeholders like, teachers, educationalists, educational psychologists, the clergy, students and parents and social organizations on the merits and demerits of having private tuition for school children. Almost all of them are agreeable to prohibit private tuition during school hours. They also said tuition classes must not be held on Full Moon Poya Days and Sundays to encourage children to attend religious schools,” Minister Kariyawasam said.
He told Daily Mirror that the ‘National Education Commission’ (NEC) has suggested establishing a State body to monitor and streamline private tuition as there was no such mechanism despite the fact that private tuition was a major sector in the economy generating over Rupees one billion a month.
Minister Kariyawasam stressed the need to ensure that tuition masters had proper qualifications to teach as preliminary studies had found that many of them did not have educational qualifications to conduct private tuition classes.
“We are contemplating the possibility of employing school teachers themselves to hold classes after school which came as a proposal from the NEC.THE benefits are huge if we could do this because of the teacher-student relation that exists and safety of students. Besides, students must not run helter-skelter for tuition classes after school if and when the student attends a tuition class within his or her own school premises and teachers are well known. It is also a huge relief for parents as well as students. Other benefits is a school teacher would not charge exorbitant fees from students like private tuition masters” Minister Kariyawasam emphasized.
He added that the proposal was beneficial to all concerned but cautioned that there will be protests and canard from doomsday prophets who never see a positive side of any project and say that the government was in a move to privatize free education and the proposal was disastrous to the country.