Mapping the ‘shadow education’ system

Private lessons seem to have become the norm rather than the exception, according to figures contained in a report written for the European Commission. Drawing on local studies in each of the EU member states, the report points out that more than half of Grade 10 students on the island were receiving some form of private tutoring and nearly eight in 10 had done so at some point in their school lives.

Malta is not alone in this. It actually comes in third behind Greece and Cyprus for the prevalence of private tuition and the report itself was commissioned in response to the considerable growth of “shadow education” almost throughout Europe.

One would imagine that parents only need to resort to forking out the cost of private lessons when their child is at risk of failing a high-stakes exam. Scope for private tuition may also exist when a particularly able child is not getting challenged enough in the classroom. But both these are the exceptions not the rule. So why are so many Maltese parents opting for private tuition? One reason must surely be that schools and teachers do not succeed in their aim of adequately preparing all students to pass their exams. The high private tuition rate reflects failings in the educational system.

The issue is more complex than that, however. Student success not only depends on the quality of schooling but, to a large extent, on support from the home too. This is sometimes missing and parents may deem it necessary to give a struggling student extra tuition.

It is less easy to justify other reasons for resorting to private tutors. While competition has its benefits, the race for high grades sometimes means children are spending several hours a week in a classroom outside the classroom, even though they do not need to. Also, if everyone else in the class is getting privately tutored, then parents may feel under pressure to follow suit.

This is robbing many students of badly-needed leisure time and the chance to pursue other activities that are more character-forming than sitting in front of a teacher all morning and afternoon. There is another undesirable consequence: since private tuition does not come cheap, it serves to widen the educational gap between the achievers whose parents can afford it and the non-achievers whose parents can’t.

The report makes the argument that, so much has it grown, the private lessons industry cannot be left to its own devices. Certainly, some pertinent questions need to be asked, some of which may be answered through further research. Are some students deliberately under-taught in the classroom in order to be lured to after-school classes? If so, how can schools pick this up and stop it? Should not the school itself be in control of after-school tuition? What is the quality of these lessons? Do they work? What are the qualifications of private tutors? Is there a lot of non-declaration of income going on?

Private tuition certainly has its place. But it is time to break the silence that tends to surround the subject and start looking into ways of regulating it more closely. The obligation to help every child succeed is not being carried fully by the educational institutions but is being shed to private tutors, conveniently for all sides except the parents who have to fork out the expense and the students who have to forfeit their free time. This situation dents the credibility of the educational system.