Tuition: Help or Bane? The G.C.E. Ordinary level results which were released recently sent shockwaves through the local education sector in that it recorded one of the highest failure rates in examination history. According to the Examinations Department, out of the total number of students who sat the examination, regarded as one of the two major hurdles in our secondary education, 51 per cent failed, losing their chances to pursue higher education. While the poor pass rate at the O/L confirmed concerns regarding the declining standards of our education system, it has also posed doubts as to whether private tuition has helped pass exams as is the common belief. It is true that many students who excelled at the examination admitted receiving private tuition. However, at the same time, one must not lose sight of the fact that the majority of students who failed also attended these tuition classes. As also envisioned by the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals on education, human development of a country is measured by the skills of its entire student community and not by the achievements of the handful of students who excel at exams. Thus, even though tuition is popularly viewed as a supplement to school education and a means of ensuring success at exams, the figures make it clear that it does not help the less-accomplished or motivate the less-motivated students in the rat race to secure good results. Send in your views on the above issues as on private tuition. Your contributions (in 750-1,000 words) should be sent to ‘Daily News Debate’, Daily News, Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, PO Box 1217, Colombo, or via e-mail to [email protected] before July 24, 2007.

Education, headache of parents

L. M. Samarasinghe

TUITION FEES: My neighbour one day stated that he was paying Rs. 1,000 for a visit to a teacher who comes to his house once a week to give tuition to his son studying for the G.C.E. “A” Level.

This teacher spends about one hour with the student. This neighbour had related this story to another person who had two children studying for the “A” Level and he was paying Rs. 3,000 for each visit to the teacher who comes to give tuition to the two students for a period lasting about one and a half hours.

The tuition story is similar to this all over. All students are encouraged to seek tution. This is not only for students at the “A” Level. But for children in lower grades as well. Very often the parents have to run around taking their children to Tuition classes at various locations much to the inconvenience of the children and the annoyance of the parents.

When students get home in the afternoon or evening the parents have to organise the visits to the tuition classes for their children. The Children have no time to relax with their parents or visit friends or relatives. Does this mean that the students attending school today are more knowledgeable than the students who did not have to follow tuition classes a few decades ago?

Inspite of the tuition the performance at Public Exams seem to be far below the expected standard. Over 63 per cent of the students who sat the G.C.E. ‘O’ level Exam at the end of 1966 had failed in English and this is a subject for which many students attend tuition classes.

In addition to the Tuition Industry the system of International Schools also have made a major impact on the National Education system, The International Schools were originally set up to provide education to the children of foreign persons who are residing in this country.

In recent times some politically powerful persons decided to send their children to the International Schools and had the gates opened for local children as well. The organisers of International schools became quite active and have set up a network of International schools throughout the country.

They teach the subjects in English and the students are quite good in their English. They also prepare students for Exams in London (UK) and Australia, Many of these students go abroad for higher education.

The command that these students acquire in speaking and writing English helps them to get jobs in the private sector places too. The charges for a term at the International School would be around Rs. 100,000 per student.

The money needed to meet the cost of the Tuition Industry and the charges of the International Schools is available only to less than 10 per cent of the total number of Parents of this country. Over 90% of the parents are struggling due to the very high cost of living and are unable to find the money needed to take advantage of the International schools or the tuition industry.

They depend on the National Education system. The authorities in charge of this National Education system don’t seem to know the realities at the bottom level.

Around 1970 the Ministry of Education stopped teaching of History and the students who came out of the schools during the last several decades were denied the opportunity to learn the unique history and the amazing operation of the Hydraulic civilisation that the ancient people of the country had built up without any parallel anywhere else in the world. In the USA the study of their history is compulsory even for medical students.

Students end up their school education without an adequate command of the English Language, English is important not because it was the language of the British Administration. But it is a global language and with a knowledge of English it is possible to go to most parts of the world. Some of the political leaders had their children educated in the United Kingdom.

Over three decades ago while this writer was serving in the Sri Lanka Administrative Service the Head of an important Government Department invited him to serve in a Selection Board to select persons for a particular post.

A Graduate of the Peradeniya University came up and the questions were put to him in English and he answered them all in Sinhala. The Head of Department who presided at the Interview Board stated that he needs persons who had a fair command of the English Language and the Peradeniya Graduate was not given that appointment.

Students who enter the University are unable to make good use of the libraries because the important books on most subjects are in English and students are not in command of the English language to take advantage of the libraries. There are some students who get scholarships to the Lumumba University in Russia.

At that University they first teach the Russian language to the foreign students and thereafter they study the subject in the Russian Language. Some Sri Lankan students get scholarships to study in some of the Universities in China.

When our students go there they are given an education in Chinese and thereafter they study their subjects in Chinese. Would it not be possible for the Universities in Sri Lanka to give the graduate students an education in English so that they could make use of the Libraries.

Free education and the 55 Central Schools that were set up in all parts of the country by Mr. C. W. W. Kannangara, the then Minister of Education in 1945 enabled a large number of young students from the rural areas to acquire proficiency in English and they achieved much success in the Universities and many of them ended up holding high positions in the Public Service of this country.

This position does not prevail any longer. Graduates who come out of the universities fail to get jobs in the private Sector because they are unable to speak or write English and all of them come from the families that belong to the ‘not so rich’ 90% of the families in our country.

The prevailing situation today is positively more unfavourable to the rural poor than the position that prevailed during the British Administration prior to 1945. The missionary schools and the BTS schools offered certain concessions to some of the rural families to enable their children to take advantage of certain concessions under their education system.

The Principal and some Senior Teachers of the Buddhist Theosophical Society schools in certain areas spent a considerable part of their vacations to visit rural areas and meet the parents and encouraged them to send their children and offered concessions at BTS Schools to get an English Education.

At the present time there is a common complaint that there is a dearth of qualified Teachers. During the earlier times there was a system of having training Colleges where teachers were given professional Training and they built up a large Cadre of qualified and competent teachers.

It is said that today they depend on the Diploma in Education that graduate teachers are expected to acquire. The Diploma in Education does not compare well with the two years residential Training that the Training Colleges provided earlier.

It is also quite sad that many politicians show a tendency to capture the schools and teachers to support their programs and be loyal to them. This unfortunate process leads to bad consequences that damage the National Education System.

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Parents force children to attend tuition classes

Swarna Wanniarachchi
Pilapitiya.

FASHION: The word “tuition” has become a popular topic today. Leave alone education, for anything to be successful it should be pleasurable and innovative. There must be a good rapport between the teacher and the student, and most of all the environment must be suitable to study.

Dr. Maria Montessori the “mother” of pre-school education and the “voice of children” stressed the importance of a Child’s place and the healthy environment in education. There are other important factors too that make both teaching and learning enjoyable and successful.

Today most of the children attend tuition classes for the want of parents. The parents force children to go to tuition classes not knowing what really happen in some of these.

In some classes the teacher sets some work to the children and engage himself / herself in either a long telephone conversation or else just falls asleep, not knowing what the children are upto.

This happens very often where children attend these classes as they are helpless to voice anything against the teacher. The child thus loses all the interest in the work and begin to detest such classes. Can there ever be good teaching or learning in such an atmosphere?

It has become a fashion today for some to conduct classes even though they are not teachers, just because they know to speak a few sentences of English (this is extremely dangerous.) There is also a new trend among parents to prefer university students to teach their children. On what ground this happens of course God only knows.

Another factor is that most of the teachers are tired and fatigue at the end of day’s work in school and have to be ready for the next day. Then is it humanly possible for such teachers to do any successful extra teaching?

To quote from Samangi Wettimuny’s article on a parent’s feeling. “His school teachers are not very efficient. So how can he pass the exam without tuition”. See how parents seem to lose confidence in teachers today. Sad isn’t it?.

Even some of the “International schools” that have come up like mushrooms in every nook and corner of the island have no basis or strong foundation on which children are admitted and teachers taken.

Any fellow without any I.Q. or for that matter an idiot can get into some International School provided they are moneyed. In such instances too both teaching and learning become just a bluff, which may hinder the total educational cycle.

There are also children who do not do any studies at school. They do not have the necessary books, most of the time they come to borrow books, never do any type of reading or do their homework set and never are ready for the day’s work. Even if such children attend hundred tuition classes for a week would they ever benefit? Never.

Many differences are found even between the teachers of the past and present. A few decades ago teachers were a respected lot. They did not demand respect, but commanded.

It was because they were perfect in their knowledge and in imparting it to the children, thus been an example to others. For example a teacher of English also knew about geography, history, maths, classics, art, music and sports. Would not such a teacher command respect?

Today it is sad to say that there are a numerous number of teachers who are not competent even in the subject they teach. One day as I was seated in the staff room I noticed a young teacher absorbed in a book. I felt she was in need of some help. She came to me, showed me a poem with a beautiful picture, the poem was “Fireworks”. Though she had read it several times she was clueless.

I explained. It created a beautiful image in her. I told her how to get children involved. A day later I met her. She had succeeded in putting it through, to the children very successfully.

The children had enjoyed, there had been so much of noise, each child trying to express his/her own experiences and talk so much about it. This is called creative and efficient teaching and learning. The teacher herself realised what a creative poem it was.

I was ready to help her always, but within a few weeks she disappeared. This is a clear example of how at times poor teachers are loaded with work that they are not competent at all to do, beyond their scope, and knowledge. Will children not have to seek the help of tuition teachers in such cases?

When we became teachers we were not just recruited. It was a long procedure. We had to follow an internal course of two years at the Training College, under distinguished lecturers in thirteen subjects, Sinhala, English Language and Literature, child psychology, phonotics, methodology, literal criticism, maths, singing, dancing, physical training and environment studies.

We studied these with devotion and interest and became well equipped teachers to teach, knowing both the subject matter and the way to teach.

Then was the option to do the G.A.Q. and enter a University to further polish our knowledge. A Post graduate diploma gave a teacher the highest knowledge possible. Thus we could handle any class from the lowest to the highest.

The teachers of yesteryears were not only master in teaching but reformers of children making them useful good citizens and complete men and women. Today some teachers are like machines just pouring out something, but - to quote a teacher “School education is not merely exam oriented, it provides integral education”. True enough, but does this happen every where?

It is also well seen how children change in their attitudes and behavior as they grow up. Children who loved birds, animals, flowers, trees etc. have no time today to enjoy the beauty of nature.

It was also customary for the family to get together and go to the temple or church. Today children have hardly anytime for such good acts. The weekends and the dinner time made members of the family get together.

Here everybody discussed everything in a happy and friendly atmosphere. But today the children are deprived of all these due to tuition classes. Children are not available at home even on a poya day, which is very serious and unfortunate.

The tuition fever has caused a great burden on the parents. Living, itself is a burden today. Expenses have gone rocket high and some tuition teachers increase fees at a rate and a parent who sends two or three children to these classes finds it extremely difficult. To quote “at the end of each tuition class fees have to be paid”. Where would a poor parent stand?

There are also instances like mothers dropping their children in classes and going on various errands neglecting their duties at home.

In the past tuition was given to a very needy child who was extremely poor in his studies. This too, was done in secrecy. But today things have changed so much, that it has become a fashion. Secondly, the number of weak children in studies too has increased in leaps and bounds.

Therefore we cannot definitely say that tuition is totally unnecessary. A weak child can certainly find salvation in a tuition class as long as it is under a good, efficient and well qualified teacher with proper care and good guidance.

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Can we arrest the spread of this malignant virus?

J.B. Muller

EDUCATION SYSTEM: The tuition business conducted by all sorts of ‘entrepreneurs,’ generally referred to by all and sundry as ‘tuition-kaakko’ has spread island-wide like some malignant virus.

There’s hardly a town or village that hasn’t a ‘tuition-maduva’-some sort of space, often a lean-to structure, part of a dwelling house, abandoned boutique that hasn’t been converted into one.

In the metropolitan area of Colombo and in the larger towns, these businesses are housed in more impressive premises with signs advertising their presence.

Sunday newspapers in all three languages are full of advertisements announcing classes in economics, business studies, applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, bio-science, and, of course, in English! Some of these ads also state that those who conduct the classes are graduates in the subjects tuition is offered in.

Parents are harried by their children to attend one or more classes and the cost is prohibitive-some so-called ‘institutes’ charging Rs. 1,500 per subject! Children come home and say that their school teacher or master has advised them to attend classes at this or that institute failing which they would fail the all-important ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels.

In a panic reaction, parents get into debt in order to send their children to these places. This is to ensure that their children would stand a chance in the highly competitive job market after leaving school.

That is the ‘hope’ every parent cherishes and they’ll spare nothing to ensure that their kids get a fair chance in the tough world outside home and school.

Talking to a parent, he said: “Education is in a bloody mess and has been ever since the misdirected language policy was implemented.” Today, Sri Lanka has the State-run schools system to which the greater majority of children go, the assisted denominational schools that opted to stay out of the State sector, Pirivenas where Buddhist acolytes are educated, and the wholly private sector international schools.

The State school system educates in the national languages of Sinhala and Tamil with English as a compulsory subject at ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. The assisted denomination schools have separate English medium classes whilst the international schools teach entirely in the English Language with the national languages as subjects.

The most obvious result of this is that those who benefit from an English language education have the option of securing gainful employment in the Private Sector, the NGO community, and diplomatic and trade missions or of pursuing either a professional education or a university education that would give them a degree or equivalent professional qualification.

Those who do not get this opportunity generally swell the ranks of the unemployed and unemployable.

The majority of those who eventually gain access to 13 universities go into arts faculties-and end up, for the most part-unemployable-whilst the others graduate in engineering, information technology, medicine and surgery, veterinary science, and so on, obtain employment and then discover that they must still cross the hurdle (or obstacle course) of the English language!

This discovery leaves them bitterly disappointed, disillusioned, angry, and traumatized. They realize, with shock, that the educational system has shortchanged and defrauded them.

One engineer has taken the Professional Review examination seven times-and failed-because of an insufficient knowledge of English! He is now 47 year’s old and disgusted with both is life and career.

The scenario sketched out here is the reason why the tuition-kaakkas flourish. They heartlessly exploit the fears of both students and parents to make a quick buck and they do rake it in-by the millions!

Several professional bodies not only conduct professional development courses but also provide mentoring by senior professionals who also impart the benefit of their on-the-job experience to the students.

Schools that really care for their pupils should look seriously at mentoring them by utilizing the services of members of the older generation who could coach students in subjects that they are weak in.

It is a concept that merits consideration in current context. Overall, a rational and entirely feasible strategy on education must be designed to meet the real needs of a modernising society gearing up for the tasks of the 21st century.

That strategy should divest itself of all humbug, hypocrisy, pretence, pseudo-patriotism, chauvinism, double-standards, bigotry, and reactionary extremism.

The ‘rose-tinted’ glasses ought to come off and we should take a long, hard look at where some tragically misconceived policies have taken all of us.

Let us get things back on track starting with the education of our children, often touted as our ‘most precious resource’ and then consigned to a life of penury, dependence, and even of crime and vice or servitude as bag-carriers and pot-scrubbers. This will have to be done if we are to stop trudging along Poverty Street and take a right-turn into Prosperity Avenue.

It would be quite unrealistic for us to expect politicians to lead us-they don’t have what it takes to face real, hard facts or the ground realities that obtain. However, the people, through their own organisations that constitute Civil Society, can and must take the lead and the island could then be rid of tuition-kaakkas and their maduvas.

(Kaakko - crows, the omnipresent scavengers; Maduva - makeshift shed)