Tuition Classes

 Well, it was at Hyderabad that I became aware of this menace called coaching classes. The son (mostly; very rarely, the daughter) had to pass his seventh, and that summer vacation onwards, he would be admitted (that turn of phrase is more realistic, closer to truth than 'he would join') to a coaching class that would start training him for the IIT JEE! Solid five years he would be grilled cum groomed, often in the adjoining hostels, to join that elite institute.

Well, what exactly is the problem? Everybody wants the child to be successful, and sends him to tuition classes! That would be the parents' argument. Well, it never mattered to anyone if the boy had, forget the liking, but at least the basic ability for such stringent coaching, and later for the IIT! 

In Maharashtra, too, there was the Latur pattern. The only succour, I believe, would be that sons joined such coaching classes after the tenth, right?

I have always had solid problems with such tuition classes. I have never ever attended one. Self study is the best method. Luckily, my parents thus encouraged me, too! As for the coaching classes, well, they create a parallel education system which weakens the basic one. Parents are ready to pay lakhs for stupid tuitions, but they cannot make the 'ladla' attend school/college lectures regularly, make him study sincerely, develop good learning habits! 

It is quite a vicious circle. Many teachers do not teach because students do not take schools/colleges seriously, and students do not learn/study seriously in colleges because teachers teach in a mediocre way. After the Seventh Pay Commission, teachers at least do not depend on the tuitions payments which once was a reality so much so that colleges had to warn teachers against such two-timing.

Do not the tuition teachers, too, teach in a most mediocre way? In fact, they make students in to exam answering machines! More than creating a passion/love for the subject in the student's mind, they make him a 'marks-ist'.

To get new victims to feed in to their cashbox, they resort to all sorts of wrong practices such as paper leaks, 'managing' the paper setter, and/or the examiner! The ads they release are real fun. The same topper is the topper because he attended ABC to XYZ  classes! Hopefully, in different batches at least!

Such menaces exist not only in the junior college days. Horrible are the C.A. classes, too. The timings are most unrealistic. The students never attend regular college classes. Their commerce teachers complain that they have an attitude problem. They think themselves to be better than, superior to college teachers!

The UPSC/MPSC tuition classes, too, are horrors. The fees are steep. Most students come from poor rural families. Dreams are sold to them . Years are spent preparing for that one last attempt which never happens!

As for languages, it is no better. For English, there are these quick fix coaching classes where the teachers themselves do not know forget good, even proper, English! Nor is the language taught properly, despite all sorts of warranties. As for foreign languages, students, who do not learn in colleges because they want to "enjoy", are provided ready made answers to  mug up, I suppose!

As for the CAT/TOEFL/GRE preparation, tuition classes focus on specific skills necessary for a special exam which never get properly taught till the twelfth because the language needed for such tests should have been honed by the twelfth. Actually, excellent books with lots of tests are available. The ETS makes wonderful practice material available, too. 

Where lies the problem? In cosseting and spoon feeding? In rote learning for the exam?  In never encouraging the learner to 'learn'?  In stupid movies that show colleges as 'fun' places for enjoyment,  for eve-teasing cum affairs, and which treat teachers as buffoons? I suppose, also in attitudes such as the eleventh or the FY is the 'rest year'! Who studies in the eleventh? Only boring people! Believe me, brainless mothers encourage their stupid sons in to such silliness! 

Surely, there are systemic problems such as the summative exam patterns that test only the memory. Hence the new law by the government that a child below sixteen cannot join any coaching class is a welcome move. Thus alone can end the Kota Raj!

Pratima@This move would weaken the parallel educational economy. Students would have to study in schools. That would develop the studying habit hopefully. Why waste money, time, teenage and youth in tuition classes, right?