Proposal to make tutoring a business: Don't let students become money-making tools
Some teachers and experts oppose making tutoring a conditional business because they fear that students will become money-making tools.
Ms. Nguyen Hoang Anh (Math teacher at Dong Da Secondary School, Hanoi) frankly assessed that the issue of extra teaching and learning is being distorted and abused.
Students become money making tools?
According to Ms. Hoang Anh, in the past, only students with poor academic performance needed to go to the teacher's house to review and improve their knowledge. Now, almost every family sends their children to extra classes with the mentality that "no matter how much they study, it's not enough, if they go to the teacher's house to study, their scores will automatically be higher".
There are even cases where excellent students still attend extra classes twice a day, to the point of being mentally confused. Such thinking causes extra teaching to become distorted and deviate from its original goal.
"Parents have repeatedly asked me to tutor their children after school hours and on weekends. Honestly, I taught for a few years and my income was better, 3-4 times higher than my salary at school.
Due to too much pressure, I refused to tutor students in my homeroom class because after each test, parents wondered why the students' scores were so low. Every time I heard this question, I felt sad. It seemed like parents assumed that if they went to her house to tutor, their scores would be high, regardless of their children's abilities.Ms. Hoang Anh confided.
Another reason she stopped "working overtime" was partly because the tuition fee was increasing day by day, with inflation higher than market prices. In 2010, she taught her first extra class, at that time the tuition fee was 40,000 VND/session/student. After 10 years, the tuition fee increased to 150 - 300,000 VND/session depending on the form and the parents' needs for the review class (1-on-1 tutoring, intensive review, review by session...).
Many times she was in a difficult situation, if she charged too low a price for extra classes, other teachers in the same school would "boycott" her because they thought she was dumping and lowering the price to attract students. On the contrary, if she charged too high a price for extra classes, she would be accused of exploiting parents and students.
"Since the end of 2021, I have stopped tutoring at home. Although my income has decreased significantly, I really feel more at ease, fair to all students, and do not have to worry about adjusting scores every time I grade a test. Above all, I do not want to be accused of taking advantage of turning parents and students into money-making tools."40 year old female teacher confided.
This teacher is concerned that tutoring is banned but many teachers still go beyond the rules, forcing students to attend classes to make money. So if it is approved as a conditional business, to what extent will it be transformed and exploited, and to what extent will the price of tutoring inflate, then students will suffer double losses.
Eleven years ago, the Ministry of Education and Training issued Circular 17 with the hope of completely resolving the situation of extra teaching in schools. Up to now, this problem has not abated but has even become more and more widespread, causing public outrage and many National Assembly deputies have raised it in parliament.
Extra teaching and learning not only causes costs for parents and overloads students, but also exposes a bad image of teachers when there are reports of students being forced to take extra classes, schools organizing extra classes in the form of "voluntary forced tutoring". There are even cases of students being bullied and treated unfairly just because they refuse to take extra classes.
Mr. Hoang Ba Tuan Anh (a Literature teacher in Vinh Yen, Vinh Phuc) believes that the purpose of extra teaching and learning is to help students improve their knowledge, not to solve the problem of supply and demand. Although teachers' salaries are low, that is not an excuse to force students to take extra classes, as a form of overtime.
"Education is defined as using knowledge and love to influence, guide, and guide students. It cannot be turned into a form of business that buys and sells for money. No one can measure a teacher's enthusiasm and love for the profession with money."he said
When accepting tutoring as a conditional business, it means that both teachers and students are put on the scale to determine "how much does it cost to learn from this teacher, how much does it cost to learn from that teacher".
This literature teacher also believes that instead of making tutoring a conditional business, the education sector needs to focus on two problems: increasing teachers' income and innovating the form of examinations and teaching.
Only when students no longer worry too much about their grades, exams are no longer difficult and competitive, learning methods change from memorization to assessing awareness, ability, thinking, and encouraging students, will the problem of extra tutoring gradually be eliminated, Mr. Hoang Anh analyzed.
Tutoring should not be considered a conditional business.
Mr. Nguyen Xuan Khang, Principal of Marie Curie School, Hanoi, said that conditional business lines are those that must meet necessary conditions for reasons of national defense, national security, social order and safety, social ethics, public health, etc. The 2020 Investment Law stipulates 227 conditional business lines.
The tight extra-curricular schedule makes students confused and stressed. (Illustration: GDTĐ)
In the field of education, for many years now, there has been a widespread phenomenon of extra classes, causing public outrage. It is understandable that poor students have to take extra classes, but good students also have to take extra classes, studying to the point that children are tired, depressed, and lose necessary rest time. Some children want to take extra classes. Some parents force them to take extra classes. The worst thing is that teachers force students to come to their classes to take extra classes...
The concept of "rampant tutoring" is understood as excessively forced by parents or teachers. Therefore, the recommendation to put tutoring and tutoring under management as a conditional business is not advisable.
"The widespread practice of 'extra tutoring' is a painful issue but it does not affect national defense, security, nor social order and safety; it does not cause much harm to morality... Therefore, there is no need to add another conditional business sector."he stated his opinion.
The Ministry of Education and Training has issued a circular to combat rampant extra tutoring, and many localities have also proposed solutions, but they have not been implemented well. Why have they not been implemented well? We need to find the cause, solve each problem at its root, and gradually overcome it, and not consider it as a profession like other professions, even if it is "conditional".
According to Mr. Nguyen Tung Lam - Hanoi Educational Psychology Association, in primary school, the situation of parents being forced to let their children take extra classes is more common than in higher levels. However, in reality, students do not need to take extra classes. Especially for students who already study two sessions a day, all learning requirements are almost solved at school.
Mr. Lam supports tightening management and having stricter sanctions for cases of "forcing" students to take extra classes or teach in advance, bringing formal knowledge to teach in extra classes. This has a legal corridor, only the issue of implementation and sanctions remains, there is no need to issue additional regulations stating that extra teaching is a conditional business.
Mr. Tung Lam also shared the reasons for the widespread extra teaching due to the psychology of chasing scores (of parents), pressure to achieve (due to teachers being pressured to compete) and more importantly, the pressure of transferring to higher levels, graduation exams, and university entrance exams is too heavy at junior high and high school levels.
Will amend the regulations on extra teaching
Director of Secondary Education Department Nguyen Xuan Thanh said that the Ministry of Education and Training is looking to amend Circular 17 to resolve problems in licensing tutoring organizations."If it is included in the law as a conditional business line, this problem will be easier to handle,"he said
The Ministry of Education and Training does not allow schools to increase teaching hours and subjects compared to the prescribed curriculum. The fact that schools increase teaching hours and collect extra money is essentially extra teaching and learning. The Ministry of Education and Training has also repeatedly requested educational institutions to comply with Circular 17 on the issue of extra teaching and learning.
To limit this situation, the Ministry of Education and Training has been innovating regulations on student assessment (including regular and periodic), and innovating high school graduation exams to properly assess and encourage teachers and students to develop their abilities and qualities instead of purely acquiring knowledge. With this new requirement, the traditional way of preparing for exams will gradually become unsuitable.
This innovation will not help to immediately end the widespread practice of extra teaching and learning, but it will have a big impact on the motivation of students and parents to study extra, Mr. Thanh said.