Private tuition — Private coffers

“So what’s your normal day like?” I asked my young friend.

He answered: “Well, I wake up at around 6–7 AM, get to school around 8 AM. Then after classes end at 2, I go back home, eat, change and then head to the private tuition centers in Scheme 3 (Chaklala Scheme 3, Rawalpindi). There, I have three hour long classes back-to-back for all my subjects. After that I come home around 8–9 PM and by then I’m so tired I just go to sleep.”

“So when do you revise for your class or have time for homework?”

“Which homework? The academy or school one?”

“Either.”

“I don’t. I do my academy homework between classes and during breaks in school. Some guys I know either sleep in class or just don’t have the energy to attend morning lectures by pulling off all-nighters. I haven’t done my school homework in weeks. They punish us once or twice but now even the teachers know which students go to academies so they’re lenient on them sometimes.”

“Why is that?”

“Because some of them are students in their own academies.”

After-school academies as many parents are familiar with, is now very commonplace in Pakistan. Teenagers from ages 13 all the way to 19 are enrolled in private tuition centers to boost their grades in schools and examinations. A single subject costs around Rs. 4,000 to teach (or more, depending on the quality of the teacher/academy). Most academies are run by former or current teachers in private schools. These teachers then invite students from their classes in school to their academies, where the teachers have more freedom in their teaching methods and also are not privy to any regulatory authority. Calls for regulation were addressed, with the Private Educational Institutions Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) being set up by the government to administer the schools but so far, has done little virtually nothing against private tuition centres.

Recently, Oman has banned and strongly condemned these academies and private teachers who practice favoritism amongst students.

During exam season, these academies churn out binded copies of notes which they mass produce and sell on to these students for thousands of rupees. An additional burden which ends up on the parents who already pay now for both school and academies.

These penniless parents then tend to express their discontent with the situation in blaming the children for not bringing good grades for scholarships against the heavy investments they make.

The problem, while multi-faceted, is in part due to the vacuum left by the government in providing quality public schools and universities. There is a significant social divide between students who study in public schools vs private schools. In developed countries, if a student graduates college from his hometown, they have an equal opportunity to apply for jobs or universities. An equal straight line. But in Pakistan, the line would more likely resemble deep valleys as students from public schools and colleges rarely get the same opportunities as students from private schools. Hence, parents logically enrol their children to these high-profile schools for a promise of a better future.

In Pakistan, the system is such that the deeper pockets you have, the better opportunities you’re bound to get.

Regardless of the quality of education permeated by the private schools, tuition centres or ‘academies’ as their more commonly known, still attract students with the promise of ‘guaranteed A* grades’. Tuition centres would not exist if the institutions themselves were good enough to cater quality education. Better minds have discussed the issues of the public schools, but few have discussed the malice of these private academies and the damage they do to a students study and life cycle. While the Supreme Court decision to reduce school fees by 20% has been lauded as a significant achievement, it merely cast a net on the formal schooling system and completely missed the tuition centres.

First, the tuition academies that have been minting tax-free money by the millions should be fiercely regulated by the relevant government body to minimize the burden on parents who pay these extortionate fees in their desire for their children to achieve better grades. Why are parents paying double for schools and tuition? Does one not already serve its purpose? Then why even send children to private schools if they end up in private tuition centres to boost their grades? Parents must be stalwart in their stance against the activities of these academies and deeply question the decision to enrol their children in these academies.

Second, the inability of schools to regulate their own teachers from inviting students to their private tuition centres calls to question the intention of schools in providing ‘a quality education’. I myself have been targeted by teachers telling me in their class to “come to my academy and I’ll teach you the rest.” One cannot fathom how this is acceptable in any educational institution to favor students studying in tuition centres over those who don’t. The students who feel left out, end up joining these academies and become part of the vicious loop. The government should rigorously pressure the schools into forming strict regulatory mechanisms and spread awareness among students to oppose and reject predatory capitalist practises in schools. Posters and banners in the schools and notices sent to parents is one way of keeping a check on this practise.

Finally, it is the responsibility of the students to keep a vigilant check on their teachers and actively report any fraudulent or financially predatory activities to the school administration and relevant establishments. This is in no way meant to antagonize and question the authenticity of teachers as they are without a doubt, the bedrock of learning and development, but the current environment of learning especially in private schools teaching O and A Level classes has been tainted with greedy individuals which do more harm than good to the efforts of the education system.

With exam season just around the corner, private tuition centres will now be opening wide their doors for the wave of students, and parents their purses, seeking a better report card for their children.

Note: If students are worried about transparency when filing complaints, it is advised that they utilize the Citizens Portal application as they are given the option to hide their identity.