On a late afternoon a few summers ago in Dharan, I found myself among a dozen of my Grade 11 classmates in a cramped room that smelt of sweat. My palms were moist, my shoulders brushed with those of my friends on either side, and the benches hardly fit our bodies. I was drowsy, and I could hardly register what the maths teacher was saying.

I had already spent six hours with these friends at school, having learnt enough for the day. And yet here I was, in a poorly ventilated room, too tired to take yet another lesson in mathematical theorems. My parents had put me through this trouble with the best intention—of seeing me excel. But I knew at once that a tuition class outside of the regular classroom was not for me.

Across Nepal, thousands of young students have to survive the daily grind of tuition in pursuit of grades or jobs. Parents are made to think that extra tuition is a sure-shot way for their children’s academic excellence, even as the mainstream education system continues to suffer. It is time we busted the myth about private tutoring being a panacea to students’ academic problems, for what cannot be taught in a regular classroom cannot be taught in expensive tuition centres.

Frying pan to fire

In academic literature, private tutoring is often known as shadow education, as much of private supplementary tutoring mimics the mainstream. Shadow education has different avatars in Nepal: Home tutoring, one-to-one tutoring, tutoring at schools, tutoring at institutes or tuition centres, online tutoring and tutoring at residential hostels. With rising competition, the popularity of supplementary tuition has risen. Even primary school students with little academic pressure are made to endure the burden of extra classes.

The menace of private tutoring is so widespread in Nepal that 50 percent of secondary school students and 38 percent of public school students take it in one form or another. According to a 2011 study on whether private school competition improves public school performance, around 68 percent of grade 10 students received private tutoring from their schools.

This is not Nepal’s menace alone, as supplementary tuition is an ongoing concern elsewhere, too. South Korea is well known for hagwons, similar to jukus in Japan. Eighty-two percent of students from elementary schools, 70 percent from middle schools and 65 percent from general high schools joined private tuition in South Korea in 2018. A 2016 report by the National Sample Survey Organisation in India said the number of students taking private tuition was an estimated 71 million, almost 26 percent of the national student number. In Egypt, 36 percent of students from primary schools, 53 percent from lower secondary and 84 percent from general secondary schools received private tuition, as per a 2019 survey.

Creating a divide

Private tuition is known to heighten differences in class and quality of education and discourage social mixing between students. It precludes the UN Sustainable Development Goal of “inclusive and equitable quality education for all” by 2030, as children who study in public schools are less likely to take private tuition. Moreover, the learning gap between those taking and avoiding private tuition widens as the former learn the lessons to be taught in school privately. Often, the students taking private tuition quickly grasp the topics and urge teachers to skip the lessons they have already covered in the tuition. Those who haven’t taken the tuition are shamed for trying to clear out their doubts.

The supposedly poor aptitude of students who choose not to take private tuition is, in fact, the result of poor mainstream education. Many schools in Nepal haven’t moulded their teaching to help students handle the intense competition in higher education. In some rural areas, such as Rasuwa, students are known to skip school classes and take private tuition a few months before the Secondary Education Examination as the teachers cannot complete the course on time. Overwhelmed by the pressure to complete the syllabus, some school teachers do not put much effort thinking that the students have other resources like the internet and private tuition.

The teachers providing private tutoring are often known to avoid teaching well in their classes at school. Their teaching gets significantly better in private tuition. Some others even release the questions likely to come in the exams. Moreover, staying in hostels for supplementary education is common for students taking SEE in Nepal’s urban areas. Some schools mandate staying in their hostels and taking supplementary classes to increase the students' average GPA and pass percentage. This severely impacts students' mental health as it adds to their academic burden and stress during the exam season.

Peer pressure

Parents often send their children to tuition as they believe in the idea of sathi sangat. They feel their children’s education will improve in a smarter friend circle. While a study group might be necessary, overdependence on friends or tutors can be counterproductive. As many Nepali parents aren’t literate enough, they push their children to tuition classes from a young age in the absence of guidance at home. As per a 2018 study by Khim Raj Subedi, private tuition focused only on the exam rather than learning, encouraging rote learning, discouraging students from trusting their understanding and having control over their study time.

As parents invest in children’s private tuition, they feel the weight of securing good grades, impacting how they approach learning. Peer pressure also moves students to take supplementary classes. The students taking tuition might not complain when the teacher doesn't teach well; this fragments the class in schools and discourages unity as the ones who rely only on the school teachers suffer and feel left out.

Regulate private tutoring

There is an urgent need to reduce the detrimental impact of private tutoring on Nepal's mainstream education and students’ mental health. As many teachers can barely sustain themselves from the salary they receive from schools, private tutoring is an alternative financial means for them. Therefore, banning teachers from tutoring, which rich countries such as Singapore have done in the past, isn’t practical here. Moreover, the quality of education between the haves and have-nots can worsen as China’s ban on after-school private tutoring to ease the burden on families struggling to pay for tuition backfired, with expensive, underground tutoring rising.

The Nepal Education Act (1971), amended in 2017, states that education counselling services, bridge courses, language teaching courses and any preparatory courses require the government’s permission. It does not clarify whether private tutoring falls into these categories. With time, governments have set sophisticated and detailed regulations for public and private schooling; the same must be developed for private supplementary education. Regulations and inspections on the fee, syllabi, teaching method, safety and student number in private tuition are imperative. To retain skilled teachers at schools and discourage them from offering private tuition, they should be paid well.

It is high time we broke the cycle of poor mainstream education leading to increased private tutoring and vice-versa. The monotonous routine of taking supplementary tuition after school, where the same content is taught more or less similarly, may not inculcate criticality among students. We should value their creativity and encourage self-awareness, issues that are left out of syllabi. Students should be allowed the space and time to grasp these things as they contribute to their holistic well-being and, eventually, the nation's overall human capital development.