Context: We must improve state-run schools and democratize the access of students to individualized lessons.
Culture of private tuitions in India
Wide coverage: According to the 75th round of the National Sample Survey, up to 30% of school students (pre-primary through higher secondary level) across the country avail of private coaching.
India reportedly spent over Rs.23,000 crore in 2018 on private tutoring. Incidentally, the budget allocation for the National Education Mission was nearly Rs 28,000 crore in the same year.
Inter-state disparity: 60% of students in West Bengal and less than 5% in Himachal Pradesh availing private tuition.
Factors responsible: Household characteristics, peer pressure, intense competition and school quality (or its perception) influence the decision to avail of supplementary tuition.
Issues associated with private tuitions
Undermines the true intent of education: Tutors mostly teach students how to score well on tests, inhibiting their creativity and inquisitiveness by providing quick ‘recipes’ to ‘solve’ questions.
An outcome of the poor state of education in government schools:
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER, 2018) suggests a negative association between tuition participation and school-quality indicators at government schools in rural areas.
Students at schools that satisfy pupil-teacher ratio norms stipulated by the Right to Education (RTE) Act are found to use less private tutoring.
Exacerbating learning disparities: Elementary math and reading skills are higher among class 1, 2 and 3 students who take private tutoring.
Gender and income divide in access to private tutoring: Tuition participation and expenditure have been found to be higher among boys and among children of wealthier households.
Lukewarm policy response: E.g. Questions raised in Parliament concerning the fee and advertising practices of coaching centres have received mostly unsatisfactory responses
This is possibly because of the informal and unregulated nature of operations within the country’s coaching industry.
Way forward
Attitude change from policymakers: Instead of perceiving it as a ‘shadow’ that needs to be curtailed, policymakers could leverage the services of tutors or volunteers to provide individualized attention and remedial instruction at no cost to students.
This can be done by using a voucher-based system to reduce financial hardship of the socio-economically disadvantaged.
Role of NGOs: Initiatives by NGO Pratham and Teach for India have been successful in providing supplementary tutoring to the underprivileged.
Towards elimination in the long run:
Recently introduced New Education Policy recognizes a need to ‘eliminate’ private tutoring.
The digital infrastructure set up in recent years could be used to facilitate tutoring provision across geographical boundaries to minimize learning loss.
There is an urgent need now to shift attention to the quality of teaching, pedagogy and curriculum so that students are able to meet their learning needs in school itself.