The tuition culture has grown considerably in recent years with even primary school students attenting private tuitions. Tuition is supposed to help a student learn more efficiently but during the lockdown, this myth appears to be busted. Before the lockdown, most school students could be seen attending private tuitions but since the imposition of lockdown from March, the number of such students has dropped considerably.
Talking to this correspondent, many parents stated that their children are not taking any tuition classes currently as there is no major pressure from schools yet to finish the course. “These days teachers solve one question and give a bunch of chapters for homework to finish their course fast. We cannot help with each and every subject of our children all the time so we have to hire a tutor. But since the lockdown, teachers are teaching through videos, giving homework through mails and have become easily approachable through Whatsapp so my children
did not feel the need of a tutor. Of course, we also help them but they are studying happily. I guess if teachers could always be this much approachable and teach without putting the pressure of finishing the course, children will feel more involved in learning," said homemaker Suhasini Upadhyay.
"The children are doing really well in every subject on their own during the lockdown.
Sometimes we help them and sometimes they help each other. We asked them to take tuition classes from their tuition teacher as she lives
just few blocks away but they refused. I understood one thing during the lockdown that school makes education a burden for children rather than a happy learning process and that is why children do not want to make efforts to study at home on their own during regular classes," said local businessman Jagat Prasad Sharma.
However, some parents stated that after the lockdown, the study of their children will depend once again on their tutors because they are necessary to guide their children during school.
According to a local professional Gurpreet Kaur, "There are about 50 students in my daughter's class and obviously teacher cannot pay attention to every student daily. Yes, currently children are doing fine without tuition because teachers are not pressing them to complete the course, revise it and pressurising them to get better grades rather than encouraging them to do better next time and ask for teacher's help.
We spend half of our salaries for our kid's school education and still we have to hire a private tutor to make them study the same thing they probably learned in school the same day. Tuition is part of education now because we have a very disturbed education system here."
Talking about decreasing number of tuitions classes during lockdown, CBSE tele counsellor Dr Sona Kaushal Gupta said that one of the benefits of Covid-19 disease is that it showed that tuition classes are not really necessary for children when they can study on their own with little guidance from their parents and teachers.
Parents need to reconsider sending their kids to tuitions even after this lockdown ends because it will reduce superfluous stress of children which will help them to be more productive and less tired physically and mentally, suggested Gupta.
