Evolving Our Education System - The Implications of Tuition Classes

You are the parent of an average scoring child, one that is more of an athlete, and has okay results at school. One day, your child comes home with another mediocre report card. Seeing this report card, you find yourself frustrated. “Why can’t my child do better?”, you think. This sudden anger motivated you to send your child to tutoring classes to boost her grades. Day after day, your child is tutored in many subjects, and you see her grades slowly improve. Thinking that tutoring is helping, you continue to send her to this tutor. However, you don’t know the full story. Are there implications for your child as she continues to grow up and mature, more important than just grades on a report card?

For schools and communities around the world, tutoring is a big issue. Industry reports show that at least 5 billion dollars are spent on tutoring classes every year. In addition, in a survey of 35 eighth grade students in Singapore, 80% of them attend tutoring classes outside of school. These statistics are especially relevant because they show that tutoring is a relatable topic for many people around the world, one that many have opinions about. On one hand, some say that tutoring helps children gain a deeper understanding of subjects taught in school, and even get ahead of the school curriculum. These people also argue that tutoring can help build confidence, and ensure success. Although this may be true, myself and others argue that although tutoring reaps benefits in the short term, in the long term, students become overly dependent on a tutor, are too focused on a grade, and lose time which could be used to develop other passions at a young age.

Firstly, attending private tutoring classes creates dependency on a tutor, which translates into a lack of problem-solving skills in the future. One example of this comes from an inter-school survey of 26 students conducted at the United World College East Campus in Singapore. Seventy percent of these students go to a tutor more frequently when they have a test coming up. This points to how students are dependent on tutors to achieve the results they want. These children are accustomed to tutors supplying them with the information to achieve high results, and by contrast do not develop problem-solving skills if they were to try and understand something themselves.

In addition, Dr. Hirsh-Pasek, a professor of psychology at Temple University, Philadelphia provides another perspective. “Enrichment tutoring may be never ending ; for instance, if your child needed help to pass a gifted test, she is likely to require help to do well in her advanced classes.” (Paton) At the college level and beyond, there is less of this support, and when children are accustomed to it at a young age, they may struggle without it. By learning to solve problems without the help of someone by their side, students develop resiliency that allows them to overcome problems later on in life.

This experience of self-teaching not only makes students less dependent on a tutor, but develops many skills that are useful in the future. Although this experience is harder, it has been proven that the process of trying to grasp a concept is invaluable to a child’s future. Osama Sajid, an undergraduate student in 2013, and writer for the Express Tribune, commented, “I do understand that such measures of self-study are difficult and students can easily get confused – or worse, distracted. There were instances when even I became unsure of whether I was on the right track or not, but this where my true learning took place.” (Sajid) This resilience developed from a young age is essential in many facets of life even outside of studying, because we all deal with adversity at some point. Inside the classroom, students are able to work hard to understand something they necessarily don’t, and outside, this could translate into knowing how to work through a problem with parents, or with friends. When handed the facts for every test, students do not learn how to face challenges that come up in their lives, including in the classroom, and feel dependent on a tutor.

On the other hand, however, many argue that without tutoring, children may not learn the concepts as well, therefore not developing a strong foundation for further learning in other grades. These critics argue that self-teaching a topic is not as beneficial as tutoring may be. This is sometimes true, however what many do not realize is that self-teaching can be a starting point, from which a child can branch off and do one-to-one tutoring if necessary. By attempting to learn something themselves, students know how to be resilient and deal with adversity, equipping them to deal with problems in the future.

In addition to increasing dependency on a tutor, having tutoring as an option can make students overly focused on a grade and lack passion for a topic. Further data from the survey conducted at UWCSEA revealed that 42% of students go to tutors to get the grade that they want. This number is relatively small, in comparison to the other reasons why people are tutored. However, with tutoring, students feel pressure to get a grade, and lose sight of actually learning a concept. A student, Ishaan Singh, describes Divesh tutoring in Singapore, “[having] challenge problems for levels 6 and 7” and “[having] previous tests”. These challenge problems are commonalities within tutoring centers that may make students very focused on just the grade, not the process of learning to achieve the grade. As a student myself, I know that when studying in this manner, simply with the grade in mind, you do lose sight of your actual goal: to learn. Ishaan provided further insight into this topic, commenting, “Self-teaching allows you to understand something, and then by result you will get the grade. With a tutoring center, there is more of a focus on the grade itself.” When using sites such as Khan Academy and other possible resources, students are less likely to feel so connected to a grade. These children may see the grade as a reward for taking time to learn and understand a concept deeply.

By limiting the emphasis on a grade, students also develop passion, curiosity and a love for learning. As Ng Chee Meng, the Singapore Education Minister commented, "We want to cultivate a generation of young people who grow up with a sense of curiosity and a love for learning... asking both the 'whys' and the 'why nots'." (Teng) By learning on their own, students are given a chance to explore, which helps them develop a passion for learning. By flipping through a book, there is a much higher chance that students feel more engaged and enjoy what they are learning. A love for a topic combined with curiosity is a deadly combination that can result in innovation and eventually enable children to make a difference in the world. Without this, children may find that they struggle to dive deeper, understand concepts and feel motivated.

By contrast, many argue that people of this generation have to be focused on grades, claiming that these results are what will ensure success in college and careers. Although this is true, as parents, we must remember the long-term consequences of our actions. What will these tutored children do when there is no grade? When constantly handed facts in a tutoring center, students are not necessarily able to follow their passion, which enables them be analytical in the future when their work may not be so straightforward.

In addition, tutoring is very time-consuming, and this takes away time that can be used to develop other talents. Initially, it seems that the tutoring is only 2 or 3 hours a week, leaving plenty of time to develop other talents outside of academics. However, according to many communities around the world, this is not true. A large majority of tutoring centers give homework. When asked about tuition homework, Adhvay Krishnan, a student at UWCSEA East, said, “Kumon gave 7 booklets for 7 days of the week. Each booklet was 4 pages.” When asked about homework at other tutoring centers, Adhvay replied, saying it is “Usually more”. In addition, only 40% of students at UWCSEA fully enjoy tutoring classes. Taken as a whole, this evidence suggests that a majority of students are spending large amounts of time that they do not enjoy on tuition classes, up to 5 or 6 hours a week. At such a young age, shouldn't they be using this time to develop other passions? When the children of this generation have the task of juggling a job and a family, they will have much less time to develop other skills. Shouldn’t we give them this chance now?

Similarly, Ng Chee Meng, Singapore Education Minister, also seems to agree. “Let's help our children make good use of their time to branch out to explore other interests and passions and to pursue what they want to do in life.” (Teng) These passions developed outside of the classroom are essential to a child’s developmental well-being as they continue to grow up and mature. When playing an instrument or a sport, for example, skills such as collaboration and creativity are developed, which are not necessarily developed in the classroom learning environment. When participating in these activities, students are able to develop as a full person, rather than just academically.

On the other hand, however, many feel that learning something on your own is more time-consuming than tutoring is. When someone is teaching you information, many agree that it is much faster than reading a book, or looking at a website. It is true that this “self-teaching” method will take more time, but there is a hidden, yet powerful advantage to self-teaching - students may enjoy it more. As mentioned before, with this sense of curiosity, there is an increased chance students are more engaged. This time spent is then well enjoyed, as opposed to when it may not be with tutoring.

All in all, tutoring is a highly debatable issue, one that strikes a chord for many people around the world. Although tutoring can be very beneficial to many people, tutoring results in long-term implications of dependency, limited time to develop other talents, and an overemphasis on grades.

As a parent, one possible step is to assess the impact of tutoring on your child, as we are all different. If it is negative, possible steps would be to only using these classes sparingly or use tutoring as a back-up. Also, students may use sites such as Khan Academy, or check out any resources from the local library to clear up any confusion. This initiative will help to develop problem-solving skills and fuel passion and curiosity that is useful later in life.


Works Cited

Krishnan, Adhvay. "Tutoring - Your Example." Telephone interview. 1 June 2016.

Paton, Graeme. "After-school Tutoring 'is like Child Abuse', Says Top Head." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Dec. 2014. Web. 12 June 2016.

Sajid, Osama. "8 Hours of School and Then Tuition: Is Your Child Learning Anything?" The Express Tribune Blog RSS. N.p., 29 Oct. 2013. Web. 12 June 2016.

Singh, Ishaan. "Tutoring - Your Experience." Telephone interview. 28 May 2016.

Teng, Amelia, and Calvin Yang. "Going beyond Grades: Evolving the Singapore Education System." The Straits Times. The Straits Times, 16 Apr. 2016. Web. 12 June 2016.

Our Society and Slavery

In the First World, we think of slavery as dead. Over. Gone. We think of it as an historic aberration, a blemish on the past, but certainly not something that still exists in modern times. Yet over 27 million people are still enslaved today, and that number isn’t decreasing. Slavery is not dead at all, we just don’t notice it, and our failure to acknowledge its existence,it allows it to continue unchecked. To truly abolish slavery we must take down a system that is already in place, and has been in existence for thousands of years. Slavery is deeply ingrained into many sections of society, and to eradicate it we must change society.

The most challenging part of stopping slavery is giving up our reliance on it. Unseen slavery powers many parts of the world economy, and so we all rely upon it, knowingly or unknowingly. The list of major companies that use slave labor is long, and shockingly includes many iconic brands such as Nike, Apple and Disney. The fact that we in the First World allow anyone, especially such high profile, successful companies, to get away with exploiting people is truly atrocious and shameful, and most of us are shocked to learn about it. So how does it come about? What is modern slavery?

Slavery relies on systems of bondage, discrimination and exploitation that have been in place for thousands of years and have continued to grow and evolve throughout history. Modern slavery is also fueled by globalisation. The movement of people, money, and information throughout the world, and the spread of production, supply, and distribution chains has allowed modern slavery to grow, and enabled it to stay out of the grasp of authorities. Of course Nike, Apple and Disney don’t directly enslave people, but their suppliers do, which makes them, the companies and us, their customers, ultimately responsible for the exploitation of slave labor.

Modern slavery exists in many forms, the most common of which is debt bondage. Debt bondage occurs when people are encouraged to borrow money, often on the promise of a better job, or a better life elsewhere. The debt they are subsequently forced to pay back is massively inflated by interest and other charges, so these people end up working for years with no reward, in short as slaves. Sexual slavery, where people, usually women and children, are forced to work in the sex industry is also flourishing in modern times. As is domestic servitude, where the normal and legal practice of live in help is used to cover the exploitation and control of another person, and contract slavery, where people are deceived into slavery by a false employment contract. So you can see that while the traditional chattel slavery, where a person is legally owned by another, may be virtually extinct, slavery itself is alive and well.

How is it that this abhorrent and illegal practice is so widespread today? Put simply, it is because we aren’t doing enough to stop it. Kevin Bales, president of Free The Slaves, says that the fact slavery is still thriving comes down principally to ignorance about the institution and lack of resources directed at eradicating it. This is particularly true in first world countries where we are often not aware that slavery is not exclusively a thirld world problem. Many people in first world countries believe that slavery is nothing to do with them and that they are powerless to prevent it. Nothing could be further from the truth. We all benefit from the slave trade, only the slaves themselves do not.

Slavery may be illegal in every country in the world, but that does not mean it doesn’t exist. Between 14,000 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year. Most are forced into the sex trade, domestic servitude, or agricultural labor. At any one time, between 52,000 and 87,000 are in bondage. We don’t notice these people because we don’t realise what they are, we simply don’t perceive them as slaves. David Batstone, the author of ‘Not For Sale’ describes how he had, unknowingly, been dining at a restaurant staffed by slaves. “That’s the paradox: slavery is in reality not invisible, Except in rare circumstances, slaves toil in the public eye. The truth is that we do not expect to find it in “respectable” settings.” he writes.

We may prefer to think of slavery as a thing of the past, but in doing so we turn a blind eye to the crime of slave trading and we fail to acknowledge the suffering of the slave. David Batstone also writes that

“Many people bristle to hear the word slavery used to describe the modern practice of exploitation. Deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of Western culture is the notion that slavery ended in the nineteenth century. It is not unusual to read a newspaper account of “slavelike conditions” in a copper mine in, say, Bolivia. The laborers were kidnapped, coerced to work without pay and prohibited from leaving the mine. So why would the writer ferfer to the laborer’s conditions as “slavelike”? Because the writer buys into the cultural myth that “real slavery” was vanquished long ago.”
If we continue to deny the suffering of these millions of people, nothing will change.

Slavery will only be eradicated if we all take responsibility for its existence. All sections of society must acknowledge their reliance on slavery and take active steps to cease this unhealthy dependency. It is no good pleading ignorance and shifting the blame onto others. We must all stand up to be counted and reject slavery in its entirety. We must boycott products and services produced by slave labour, even if this means paying higher prices. We must lobby our governments to enforce anti slavery legislation, to end human trafficking and to help other nations tackle the endemic poverty, corruption and violence which allows slavery to flourish. We must provide better opportunities for those at risk of exploitation and we must work to overturn cultural norms which encourage and condone the exploitation of others. Slavery is a scourge on humanity and it is the responsibility of all humankind to work towards its abolition.

Why Sexism? No Gender Equality?

Imagine the world, where everybody is equal. There will be no discrimination, no conflict and no assault. We all once dreamed that it will be what the world is going to be, but unfortunately, that is not what the world wants to be. Not everybody is nice as we think, and they will make obstacles to stop our dreams from happening. Discrimination, sexism, things that stop the dream we all long for it to be true. Religion and cultures have their own practises, but that does not mean that there cannot be a female priest, female that take the roles that are stereotypical male roles. At the current rates, the world is changing, with the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and the first female resident in the world, Marma Estela ‘Isabel’ Martinez Cartas de Peron of Argentina.Even though those people have broken walls of gender discrimination, there are still many barriers made from culture beliefs to religion. Every female should have a right to education, to learn even the basics of how to read and write, that girls can play any sport they want, even if it is a boyish sport like contact rugby, and women should have the same wage as men for the same jobs.

People say that ‘education is a right, like the right to have proper food and a roof over your head.’ For many, it is funny that girls do not need to go to school, and part of the reason is that they do not have a choice. They might not have enough money, or their parents do not want them to go to school, and instead helping the farm etc. Many girls in the world are rejected for what they want to do, going to school. According to the book ‘I am Malala’, she was shot in the head for what she wants to do. Yes, the talibans have their reasons, but people in the opposite sex are humans as well. And it is normal for humans to go to school. In other countries, girls can go to school without people shooting their head because they go to school. They face a different obstacle, things like pregnancy, child marriage, poverty and school based violence. In worst case scenarios, those people get discriminated because they are trying to get through those obstacles that others might not realize. They are discriminated because they are different than the other students around them.

According to the UN, there are 7 main advantages for girls having a good education. (some not relevant)
- Education beats poverty. One extra year of schooling increases a person’s earnings by up to 10%. 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills. This explains that education is proven to help people to get out of poverty. - - Education can help people to get out of those harsh rural areas with bad living conditions to the great white way.
- Education promotes gender equality. Women who went to school understand the danger in processing a child, and this helps them to control how many children each family can have. For example, in Mali, a women with at least a secondary education have an average of 3 children, while those with no education have an average of 7 children. This explains that with education there will be a decrease of population, and the world will not be so overpopulated, and that people will not produce a lot of children knowing the dangers of producing a lot of children.
- Education contributes to provide maternal health. Women with higher levels of education are more likely to delay and space out their pregnancies, and to seek health care and support.
- Education helps combat HIV, malaria and other preventable diseases. This facilities access to treatments and fight against stigma and discrimination. This means that education can decrease the world’s death rate, whether it have a positive effect or a negative consequence.
- Education helps global development. ‘An estimated $16 billion in aid is needed annually to reach the EFA goals in poor countries. However, in 2008 poor countries received only $2 billion aid for basic education. The worldwide military expenditure for 2009 was $1.5 trillion.’

Stereotypical girls, do they have to sacrifice of what they want to be in the future just because of their gender? This theory applies for jobs. One of the main streaks of employment discrimination is gender. Why can’t girls work as an engineer? Rejecting a female because of her natural habitat? Rejecting a female just because… because she is a female? The world can create any kind of nonsense they want us to face.
(Unfinished)

Sports. Either its rugby, baseball etc, many debate that girls should not play boy sport. Firstly, how will you define boy sport? A sport that only boys can play? Can’t all girls play boy sport? Why not just make a girl team? Many say that girls are not as physically strong as boys, but girls can play what sport they want to play. Girls are generally stereotypically at home, as the men are stereotypically known as wiser. Sports like football, contact rugby and baseball are generally known as boy sport. Some people have to give up what they love because of what they are born into. Girls are just as good as the boys. Maybe with longer hair, silkier skin, slightly shorter, a little less masculine, they are just the same. Some girls could possibly have equal skills perhaps even better. Having their own rights is like having a cupcake that was yours, and was given not by choice to another person. Girls could be tougher than the boys who think they are the best at sports.
Personally, I play quite a lot of sports, but people judge me because I am smaller, shorter and look like I have no muscle at all. Little did they know that I was trained for a long time, and even if I have already showed them that I can play that sport 10 times better than them, they still believe that I am a total brat that is nothing but showing off. Women have their own skills and qualities, but if they wanted to play boy sports, then let their dreams come true. I have also been there when boys discriminated of what sports I should like and what sport I shouldn’t. I have always liked playing sports like badminton, basketball, touch rugby and many other sport, and yet I am still this small. People do not usually believe that I even play sport, generally commenting on the size that I am in. Only a few people see that I always have tanned skin and spotable muscle on my legs and arms. People have to understand that we girls can play whatever sport we want, and might not have to be the same team as the boys. The teams does not matter as much as enjoying the sport itself.

In the world, there are lots of confusions. Disagree or not, those rules have been set to make the world better. Even if there are many people that follow those rules, there are people out there that disagree of what it is made for the better. What we are living now is only the beginning. There are many other challenges in the future that is waiting for humanity to face. We are only solving the first pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The world need to stop discriminating people. Be the change you want to see in the world. Follow your dreams. Support gender equality.