Teachers and Tuitions

The Supreme Court verdict gave us another reason to rejoice—teachers can’t take tuition classes.

Did your teachers take tuitions? Mine did. It was rumoured that question papers for term examinations and the mock finals were given to the tuition class. There was no way to verify these allegations, but I do remember that students who used to fail or linger along the ‘just pass’ line started scoring really high marks. And yes, they did go to tuitions with our teachers.

This trend continues till date. School administrations turn a blind eye to this practice because they can continue to pay their teachers very little. Many teachers make more money through their tuition classes than through their regular paycheques.

Take a typical weekday in a child’s life. The kid comes back from school at 3:30 p.m. rests for thirty minutes or so. At 4.00 p.m. he sets off for tuition class with his school teacher. There maybe exceptions where the class teacher is not the tuition teachers but as I said, those are exceptions. The student will spend another three hours there—with many of his classmates. The same distractions are present and there is no guarantee that there is any actual teaching or comprehension is involved. Some students do benefit from the repetition. But how much attention can a teacher give the tired and distracted kids who haven’t understood the concept to begin with?

Parents do get worried about the poor teaching during school hours. They are also afraid that if they don’t send their child to his teacher for extra tuitions, he will be punished in class.

I don’t know about you reader, but I am thrilled. Let us hope this aspect of the law is actually implemented. It will be difficult for some parents yes, but this cycle needs to be broken.

Ms. S