Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Extra Classes : are they really necessay ?

Assalamualaikum all, at the moment I am stuck at UiTm organizing a bengkel for students taking SPM. My daughter will be taking the exam this year so I thought it might be helpful to give her some help in going through this ordeal. While I am at it, called a few friends if anyone interested to join in. Finally I managed to gather around 10 students and set up a class. So far it has been going on quite smoothly; I hope they learn something.

The thing is that why do these students need the extra classes ? We can see at all levels ....primary level for UPSR, middle-secondary level for PMR and Upper-secondary level for SPM......pupils are looking for extra help. Why ?? Is it because ...

  • The school curriculum does not cover enough for the exam ?
  • The teachers do not have enough time to cover all the topics?
  • The exam has gone beyond the curriculum set by the Ministry?
  • The pupil is below standards?
  • The exam has become very competitive?
  • They just need to fill up time during the school break?
All sort of questions will come to mind; it is really bugging me. This is the first time I resort to extra classes for my kids. Usually we just managed to help them out ourself. I guess time has changed and all we want is to help our daughter going through this by whatever means. If this helps then we are very thankful. This tuition classes have been very popular and silently grown into profitable income. Mainly because many of the kids are worrying that they would not make the grades. And banking on other people worries is the most successful marketing strategy in any business. Yup! as I see it ,it is a business . But it is okay I supposed , nothing comes without a price nowadays. At least we can help the teacher meets his/her ends. It's really hard to live with everything has the price going up through the roof !

However, back to educational perspectives on tuition classes, there must be something missing in the curriculum for this to happen. It should be enough for whatever they learn in the classroom to get them through the exam. That is what the curriculum is all about; if not then it should be revised accordingly. If my calculation is right then no one would be needing any extra classes for whatever reasons. But again I hate seeing my kid slouching around in front of the TV all day long. Well that is different because they can go and learn some other stuff like swimming, piano lessons, art and craft, writing etc. Things that are out of their normal school curriculum. These extra activities would help build their self esteem. It would be good for the kids. I think the real reasons come down to the parents ourselves; how far do we really ready to do it? With the job commitment and all, come school holidays or not, we can't get away with it so easily.

So my conviction is that we do not need these tuition classes after all. We can find all sort of reasons to get one but technically our kids do not necessarily need it. Go camping for a change !

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