Free Education proposals and tuition - Part IV:

Why students go for tuition

Text of the Dr. C. W. W. Kannangara Memorial Lecture - 22 by

Prof. A. V. Suraweera held at

National Institute of Education,

Maharagama on October 13, 2011

There were queries, complaints and repercussions in the media and among the general public about misbehaviour among boys and girls who attend tuition classes, teachers not excluded on the one hand, and on the other, complaints from the school authorities, from parents, from police and from the general public about certain schoolchildren who in the pretext of attending private classes resorting to numerous nefarious activities. Some of these incidents are being highlighted in the media.

With due recognition to the researches undertaken earlier, the National Educational Commission (NEC) has undertaken a survey beginning 2009 covering 80 schools selected from 15 districts in seven provinces. Information was collected from 2,578 children in grade 10 (O classes) and 884 children in Grade 12 (A Classes).

Responses from 513 school teachers, 220 parents, 53 principals and others representing child welfare organizations have been recorded. Also, views of 310 children who had completed the A/L were recorded.

I am tempted to present to you some of the findings of the NEC survey by way of fulfilling the ‘unfinished task’ of Dr. Kannangara, by going into certain unexplored areas and find meaningful remedies in our education system.

Types of tuition classes

There are presently different types of tuition classes, the more common of which are as follows.

(a) Individual class where the teacher visits the child's home of the class held at the tutor's residence. The number of students may be one or a very limited number from the neighbourhood,

(b) A group class at the teacher's home or at the residence of a student,

(c) A mass scale tuition centre where unlimited numbers are accommodated and the teacher delivers his lecture of normally two hours duration or more, making use of the public address system,

(d) extension of © above where boys and girls in unlimited numbers are packed tightly together in two or three floors of the same building. The lesson is conducted from the stage of one hall employing all modern communication techniques including wide screens.

No reliable figures are available as to the attendance in tuition classes in Grade Five but it is common knowledge that over the past two decades or so with high competition for admission to prestigious schools, mothers had been crazy to drive their children for private coaching or send them to tuition classes.

To be continued