Patrick Hilbert
29 January 2008
Port Louis — The Bureau of Catholic education wants to send out a strong signal against the habit of private tuition. Hence, no such tuition will be authorised within their school premises.
Teachers will be encouraged to use the infrastructure for creative activities after school hours.
Henceforth, no teacher will be allowed to give private tuition on the premises of Catholic secondary schools. This decision has been taken by the Bureau de l'Education Catholique (BEC) after a meeting of the boards of Catholic schools where the Bishop of Port-Louis, Maurice Piat, expressed the wish to put an end to this habit. "We have given a strong signal from the start. We don't want our school premises to be used for private tuition. We're not in favour of this kind of practice because we don't think it really helps the children", explains Gilberte Chung, director of the BEC.
In Mauritius, private tuition has become a perversion of the education system. It should be a way of helping those who lag behind; instead it has become a real culture aimed at supposedly getting better results even if one is already a good student. Over the years, it has evolved into an industry where those considered as "best teachers" ask for big money for private tuition while those who have learning problems and no money will lag even further behind.
Although private tuition is not in widespread use in Catholic colleges, Gilberte Chung points out that it is becoming more and more common. To stop it, the BEC had no other choice than to come out strongly against it. "We must not encourage private tuition. A teacher is paid to teach a syllabus within a certain time. Allowing private tuition does not help to create a level-playing field for all students.Giving private classes to 30 or 40 students at the same time cannot be called private tuition", she adds.
This doesn't mean that the colleges will be closed after school hours. Instead of being used for private tuition, teachers will be encouraged to use the infrastructure for extra-curricular activities like theatre, sports or other creative activities.
Some teachers are not very happy with this decision. Because giving tuition is a way of earning a lot of money, they're not ready to stop. So, banning private lessons inside Catholic school buildings does not mean that they will disappear. "The only choice left is to rent a space elsewhere and this will have a negative impact on their prices. If we give private tuition, it is because there's a big demand for it; many parents consider it really helps their children and so do I", says a teacher from Loreto College of Rose-Hill.
For the BEC, it is a first and necessary action. "We are trying to change attitudes. Of course, we don't have any means of finding out which teachers give lessons outside school, but we try to make them comprehend our stand and why we are acting like this", says Gilberte Chung.
In fact, banning private tuition inside these colleges is a first step. The BEC intends to take other measures which will involve the primary schools. But, in those schools, the situation is more complex. The Catholic authorities are realistic and expect the ministry of Education to introduce a general policy on private tuition in order to make it what it should be: a way of helping those who need it most.
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