“Ugh, I didn’t understand much in today’s Maths class, and I really needed some help for tomorrow’s test. No matter, I’ll just have all my problems solved today when I go to coaching in the evening. It’s not a big problem.” This is what typically goes through the mind of a Bangladeshi student, almost every other day after school ends.
One of the most common matters regarding Bangladeshi students’ education is the need for coaching or private tutoring. Although the habit of getting help from tutors outside of school is often despised by schools, most students and even parents would argue that this extra help is necessary for the children to do well.
Both in the public and private education sector, teachers often fail to address the students’ needs and may not have the checks and balances to ensure that all the students have understood the lesson. In Bangla medium schools, the very same teachers may host the coaching sessions after school -- making their in-school negligence beneficial to their business -- but this practice is strictly forbidden in most English medium schools. These schools are under the delusion that students get all the help they need at school, labeling coaching as “unnecessary and a waste of time and money.” They get peeved about students focusing more on coaching than on school matters.
Schools fall short
However, the school authorities fail to recognize the factors which make their students seek help from outside of school. In classes with 20-40 students present, it is very difficult for teachers to give individual attention to the students who need it. Some students may be too shy to ask for help in front of their classmates. It often becomes difficult for teachers to explain all the topics in the syllabus to their students and help them to grasp the key concepts.
Another common problem at school is the fact that the syllabus is sometimes not fully covered in class. This problem frequently occurs in schools due to the huge amount of content teachers have to cover in so few working days. Therefore, teachers have to go through all the topics in class very quickly without having any in-depth discussions on them, or they have to leave some topics unfinished and just provide notes which students can go through later on. However, students often have questions about some of these topics which have not been taught properly, and teachers are not always available outside of class hours. Some teachers conduct online sessions to help students, but these aren’t always effective. Therefore, when it comes to tough subjects, several students struggle to cope with what is being taught in class and perform poorly in their exams. As a result, these students have only one remaining option: Going to coaching.
Coaching, the answer?
It is a common perception that coaching provides a solution to a lot of the problems that students face at school. Students can have one-to-one private sessions with their tutors, and the timings of the classes are usually very flexible and they can be scheduled according to students’ ease. Moreover, coaching teachers are usually able to take more time out to explain concepts and topics to students; extra classes can be taken very easily to cover any lessons which have been missed. In addition to this, if students feel discontent with the tutoring they are currently receiving, they can easily switch to another tutor or coaching centre. This cannot be done so easily when it comes to school.
However, if asked, the majority of students would say that they do not prefer or enjoy going to coaching. It takes up a lot of free time and is extremely exhausting. Students go to coaching because they have no other choice.
Although there are several benefits to studying with private tutors, these services are only available to students of families who are comfortable financially, as these tutors often charge exorbitant amounts, with tuition fees sometimes even going up to sums such as Tk30,000-50,000. Since the students and tutors have no formal agreement with each other, students who feel discontent with the help they receive at coaching have no other choice than to switch to another tutor. In the middle of the academic term, this switch can be very difficult as most coaching centres do not want to take students in the middle of the year and catch them up to speed.
Where schools shine
Schools are the driving factor for students to always be on par with their studies and prepare for their exams and tests with sufficient time in hand. This is largely because school transcripts are very important for university applications, which results in students prioritizing their school assignments and exams more than the ones at coaching.
At school, children are brought up from a very young age, where teachers try to instill proper values and ideals in them. Their mistakes are corrected by teachers, who try to turn their students into good human beings, not just good students. Teachers encourage their students to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions to problems, rather than just directly providing answers to all their questions. Relying on coaching centres too much diminishes students’ creativity and their ability to think outside the box, as most coaching teachers or tutors directly solve any problems students bring to them, without making them put in any effort.
In addition, schools are places to make friends and have a good social life -- which is extremely beneficial for the students’ mental well-being. Some students in Bangladesh only go to coaching centres and have very limited social lives. Schools also provide a platform for students to take part in several extra-curricular activities (ECAs), such as sports, music, community service, etc. These are also very important for students’ university applications. For students who only do coaching, it can be difficult to take part in ECAs as they don’t have the support of an institution.
Although coaching may help students overcome some of their difficulties in places where schools cannot help them, at the end of the day, school is very important for students’ academics, as it helps them maintain discipline and study regularly.
So, no. Only relying on private tutors and coaching centres is not suitable for students at all. But school and coaching are both needed to help students excel in their studies. As for us students, all we can do is balance the two and use help from both school and coaching to the best of our abilities.
Maheem Niam Ahmed is a student at Sunbeams School.