Nita has an interesting post on tuitions/coaching classes and this actually began out as a response, but it grew so very long, I decided to post the long form here, the short version is on her site :
There are coaching classes for practically anything. There are kids who take coaching for maths and science, yet others for economics, accounting, history, geography and political science, yet others for languages. By the time the average student is finished with all the tutoring for the day – college & tuitions – there is a) no time to learn and absorb, and b) no time for anything else.
So after 15 years of education, what we get out are people with great memories, a great ability to reproduce someone else’s work without any problem…. and pretty much little else… And while Nita rightly points out the various interest groups that allow for a flourishing coaching class set up, there is one that is as important than the rest. Parents.
Parents in [tag] India[/tag] have this insane innate sense of competitiveness when it comes to their kids. Where I live there are kids in pre primary who start tuitions. ….
When I was a student only weak students took tuitions or those who were aspiring for IIT – we used to end up in all these summer classes run by our teachers in college or at Agarwals….
But, this coaching class – which is a school away from a school – has been in place and attracting large numbers fro the last 15 years or so… Kids spent hours studying till they probably peak too soon… and they are egged on by their parents.
And, I don’t blame these parents. India is a country of a billion – with education always been considered a path to power & wealth – and parents are worried that if their children didn’t go to classes to get those extra percentage points – they will be left behind…… Now, however good the education system is, you still cant’ get away from the fact that there will always be too many students coming out of the system, chasing too few jobs.
Unlike the west, where children move out after a certain age, and lead lives independent of their parents, In India education of children is also seen as a ‘pension plan’. Now, unless the fundamental way of looking at the family changes — and I am not sure that it should — and parents stopped pressurizing their kids to greater and greater heights, I can always see private tuitions / Coaching classes being in place….
Parents can really drive a child nuts!And I think boys suffer this parental pressure more than girls. Not only are they pressurized to get more marks and excel, they are also pressurized into professions they do not like. This latter is a very sad aspect of parental behavior (which I have written about) and which can ruin lives. Unless one is in a profession that one feels comfortable in, one cannot excel either!
Nowadays there are a few parents who want to get their kids away from the rat race, but yes these parens are few and far between. Let’s hope that with the opening of the economy, and more ‘lucrative’ options open to students, the parents will also see light and realise that their kids can make money and succeed even if they do not have the requisite marks. I think this trend has already started, but too miniscule and limited to only a certain class of people.
completely. but in today’s day and age it is not odd to find pushy mom’s and terrorised over achieving daughters…..
I think a few more vocational diplamas – shorter term industry friendly, industry bodies offering qualifications based on requirements, and degrees that are offer choice…. both academic and vocational
it is this hybrid bastardized model that allows us neither great academic/research skills, nor fine vocational skills…
What if our students can do without coaching classes and learn by themselves and improve their academics on their own? For this the concepts need to be clear to them. Recently read an article that 24x7guru.com provider of an online assessment tool for classes 3 to 10 students helps them in conceptualizing the maths and science subjects fundamantals.
The memorizing part which was mentioned in the article is so very true. I think, it goes till the doctorate level in India. No wonder there are not many scientists or innovators from India. No wonder somany software and BPO units are successful here.
I’m planning to do my final year dissertation on the effect of parental pressure on a child’s wellbeing.. any input fro u guys or books i could read? Any help would be big help!