Shedding light on shadow education
Dr. W. Ariyadasa DE SILVA
Confronting the Shadow Education System:
What Government Policies for What Private Tutoring? Author: Mark Bray
Most readers in Sri Lanka, I suppose, would be rather surprised to
know that an educational practice that is widely considered to be an
unhealthy local phenomenon is also prevalent in many other countries. I
refer to what in Sri Lanka is known as 'private tuition' and elsewhere
is called 'private tutoring'.
Many people in Sri Lanka have protested about the existence of
private tuition outside school hours on the grounds that it obstructs
extra-curricular activities and burdens young people. This perspective
has many parallels elsewhere. But private tuition can also have a
positive side, and some governments have even provided financial help in
the form of vouchers for underprivileged children to pay their way
through private tutoring.
The latest academic analysis of this phenomenon is the book under
review. It is not Mark Bray's first book on the subject, for he is the
reputed author of several books on the theme. Dr. Bray teaches at the
University of Hong Kong, and when this book was prepared was on leave,
serving as Director of UNESCO's International Institute for Educational
Planning (IIEP). This new volume presents the culmination of his
research so far.
The focus is on what Bray calls the shadow education system of
private supplementary tutoring which is provided in parallel to the
formal system. He uses the metaphor of the shadow for two main reasons:
Private supplementary tutoring exists only because the mainstream
education system exists; and as the size and shape of the mainstream
change, so do the size and shape of supplementary tutoring. Bray has
written this book in order to stimulate debate. He recognizes that
different responses might be needed in different settings. Many
educational planners and policymakers choose to ignore private tutoring,
leaving it to market forces.
By contrast, some have attempted to ban it. Bray suggests that
neither approach is appropriate. The phenomenon is too important to be
ignored; and experience shows that banning does not work. Thus, more
nuanced approaches are needed.
Bray has arranged his presentation in three clear steps: description:
the characteristics of the phenomenon, diagnosis: economic, social and
educational implications and responses: appropriate actions by planners
and policymakers.
Description
Description Significant commonalities and variations may be noted in
the scale, intensity and mode of tutoring. Scale: Private tutoring is
prevalent in low-income countries such as Cambodia and Kenya, in
high-income countries like Canada and Japan, and of course in countries
like Sri Lanka which fall in between. Broad regional groupings are as
follows:
East Asia: Tutoring is deeply embedded in the culture, and
particularly serves high achievers.
South Asia: Tutoring has become a well-established part of daily
life, especially in urban areas.
Former USSR: Tutoring greatly expanded following the collapse of the
USSR and the economic restructuring. Students across the whole range of
ability are involved.
Africa, North America and Western Europe: Tutoring remains modest,
but is growing as families and governments realize its power.
Latin America: Tutoring is relatively modest except at the secondary
level.
Intensity: In the lower grades, children may be subject to 1 to 3
hours of tutoring per week; and in the middle school and junior
secondary grades, 3 to 10 hours of tutoring per week is common. Senior
secondary students may receive over 10 hours of tutoring per week.
A surge in intensity is common just before examinations. Children in
lower grades tend to receive tutoring in more subjects than children in
the upper secondary classes. This is shaped by the school curriculum.
Children in the science and mathematics streams are more likely to
receive tutoring than children in other streams.
Mode: Tutoring can be in person, by correspondence, by telephone, or
through internet. Tutoring in person can be one-to-one, in small groups,
in large groups, or in lecture theatres with overflow rooms supported by
video links.
The tutors may be mainstream teachers who already bear responsibility
for their pupils, or external teachers. Some tutors are university
undergraduates or school students.
Much private tutoring remains informal, but it is being increasingly
structured by local, national and even multinational companies. Kumon
began in Japan in 1954 and now serves four million students in 45
countries using a franchising system. Diagnosis In the second step of
his presentation, Bray focuses on the economic, social and educational
implications.
Economic implications
Private tutoring consumes a large percentage of household
expenditure. Dramatic statistics include the following:
Korea: In 2006, household expenditure on private tutoring was US$ 24
billion, which amounted to 2.8 percent of GDP.
This amount was equivalent to 80 percent of government expenditure on
public primary and secondary education.
Greece: The total household expenditure on private tutoring at the
secondary level in 2000 was 1.1 billion euros, which exceeded government
expenditure on education at that level.
Turkey: In 2004, household expenditure on private tutoring was US$
2.9 billion, amounting to 0.96 percent of GNP.
Egypt: In 2002, household expenditure on private tutoring amounted to
1.6 percent of GDP.
Private tutoring has various positive economic dimensions. Tutoring
fees provide significant income for teachers, enabling them to support
their families. Similarly, the fees earned by university and school
students help them to pursue their studies. Private tutoring helps
school children to acquire skills which are a form of human capital
contributing to economic growth.
At the same time private tutoring promotes inefficiencies in the
allocation of resources. Teachers may lose interest in their own
mainstream teaching because of greater interest in their tutoring
side-activities. Additionally, much tutoring revenue is beyond the reach
of the tax collector.
Social implications
Market-driven tutoring maintains and/or exacerbates social
inequalities since high-income households can purchase more and better
private tutoring than low-income households. Private tutoring increases
social pressure on families. In Korea they say: "If a kid is not very
good and does not attend a private institute, the mother must be either
crazy or poor."
It is widely believed in Korea that schools take care of students as
a group, and not individually. For individualized academic care, one
must go to private tutoring.
Private tutoring dominates children's lives and restricts their
leisure. However, students may find private lessons a welcome
opportunity to meet friends. Tutoring is more common in urban locations
on account of the more competitive environment and greater availability
of tutoring services.
Educational implications
The impact of private tutoring provided under a government policy to
support low achievers is very different from that of market-driven
tutoring. In most settings, tutoring supports mainstream education by
providing supplementary avenues to strengthen the class work done in
school.
However, in some settings tutoring undermines the school work. For
instance, the pedagogical approaches of mainstream education and private
tutoring may differ significantly. The mainstream teacher of mathematics
may concentrate on students’ comprehension of concepts and principles
while private tutors may solve problems mechanically.
When examinations are round the corner, private tutoring may become
not a supplement but a substitute to mainstream education. Students in
many countries place more faith in the coaching of private tutors than
in their mainstream school teachers.
During the examination season in Turkey, many students seek false
medical reports to permit them to be absent from their mainstream
classes. When privately tutored students do go to class, they often
create a ‘mess’. They talk to one another, sleep, or study subjects
other than the one being taught. When the school teachers know that the
students are being privately tutored, they may teach only in a very
superficial way.
Responses
Responses From the diagnosis arises the question what planners and
policymakers can and should do. Bray suggests that they should begin by
mapping contexts, objectives and structures. Mapping is important
because each setting is distinctive, and policies must be formulated to
suit specific circumstances.
To begin, the author recommends planners and policymakers to ask two
basic questions: To what extent is shadow education a problem (or likely
to be one) which damages educational, social and economic objectives and
needs to be controlled? To what extent is shadow education a potential
asset which has hitherto not been used fully and which should be
encouraged? From the answers to the above can flow ways to shape demand
or supply and to improve regulatory structures.
Addressing the demand. Governments in Australia, England, France,
Singapore and the USA have attempted to stimulate the demand for
tutoring. The Australian voucher scheme launched in 2004 enabled
eligible parents to spend up to Aus$ 700 (around Rs 70,000) to secure
tutoring for their children.
Policymakers
A similar system was used in the USA and both schemes were part of
the inspiration for a model in England. The Singapore Government has
provided grants to community groups to stimulate demand among low
achievers; and the French Government has used taxation incentives.
Elsewhere, policymakers have desired to dampen demand because they
consider the burden on families to be excessive. However, many schemes
have been unsuccessful. Particularly significant are the experiences of
Korea and Mauritius, where many strategies adopted to control and
prohibit private tutoring have had limited success.
These experiences underline the need to address tutoring before it
becomes socially ingrained as a problem.
Policies focusing on demand for tutoring should address the root
causes rather than superficial symptoms. These root causes partly lie in
culture and economics, making it difficult for Education Ministries to
deal with them alone. However, education authorities do have some levers
to shape patterns. These include examination systems and transition
rates at each stage of the education system.
Addressing the supply
When teachers offer extra lessons to their students, to some extent
they create their own markets. Bray refers to instances where teachers
teach only part of the curriculum in normal school hours and force the
students to come to them for extra tutoring. These teachers may let
students know that progression to higher grades is partly controlled by
the teachers themselves.
Other suppliers include tutoring businesses which reach potential
clients through large-scale advertising.
Improving regulatory structures. Some governments attempt to control
private tutoring through tight regulations, while other governments have
no regulations at all. One common restriction is a ban on mainstream
teachers tutoring their own pupils.
Lithuania has a particularly elaborate framework. The law provides a
comprehensive definition of a private tutor and a detailed registration
procedure. The tutor must observe ethical practices, attend to the
learners’ safety, and provide appropriate locations for tutoring.
Teachers are not permitted to tutor the students for whom they
already have responsibility in the mainstream.
Although this book says little explicitly about Sri Lanka, readers
will readily recognize the issues that it raises. Moreover, the
comparative analysis places Sri Lankan patterns in perspective,
permitting some benchmarking and a feeling that we are not alone in
needing to address the issues.
The book shows that private tutoring is deeply ingrained in many
societies and spreading fast in others, the growth being promoted by: 1.
inadequate salaries of mainstream teachers (e.g. in many low-income
societies across South Asia and elsewhere), forcing them to find
supplementary incomes; 2. the competitive nature of society and the
perceived rewards that can be achieved by investing in private tutoring
(e.g. in Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore, where teachers are relatively
well paid); 3. government initiatives (e.g. in the USA and England) to
make schools more competitive and to raise the standard of
low-achievers; and 4. perceptions of a decline in the quality of
mainstream education (e.g. in Uganda and Malawi).
Local research
This book should constitute essential reading not only for planners
and policymakers in Education Ministries but also for the public.
In addition to stimulating awareness, it highlights the need for
further local research. In Sri Lanka, a group of teachers of the Colombo
University’s Education Faculty, including the present reviewer,
collected some data two decades ago but very little significant research
has been done since then. It is a major agenda which has been
overlooked.
Mark Bray must be congratulated for collecting a wealth of
international data and for marshalling them to produce a very
informative book.
It is brilliant in conception, painstaking in execution, global in
approach, and encyclopedic in treatment. The style is lucid and
forceful, and makes exhilarating reading.
Translators and publishers
This book has been widely acclaimed as an outstanding publication and
has attracted worldwide interest and attention. Already arrangements are
being made to translate it into a number of languages including Arabic,
Armenian, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Nepali, Russian and Uzbek with
the possible addition of Azeri, Georgian and Swahili. I should like to
see Sinhala and Tamil translations of the book, and I know that Mark
Bray ([email protected]) and UNESCO-IIEP would also welcome expressions of
interest from would-be translators and publishers.
Confronting the Shadow Education System: What Government Policies for
What Private Tutoring? (2009), by Mark Bray. Paris: UNESCO International
Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP). 132 pp. €20. Electronic copy
free of charge from www.iiep.unesco.org.
The writer is formerly, Senior Professor of Humanities Education and
Dean, Faculty of Education, Colombo University
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