Parvati was an enthusiastic child of Class 6. She was curious and attentive in class.
She did her homework regularly. She participated in co-curricular activities. She was friendly with a contagious smile dancing on her face at all times.
However, marks eluded her. Her scores in tests always hovered around the 50% mark. And then, the inevitable happened. Her parents enrolled her in a tuition – Extra coaching classes after school hours.
School from 9 AM to 4 PM. Tuitions from 5 PM to 8 PM. The parents just wanted to help. The waited for the MAGIC to happen.
One month passed. Then two. Parvati became dull. Her attention in the class dropped. Her smile was replaced by a disinterested look. She stopped talking to friends. Marks fell from 50% to 30%. She ended up failing in Math and Science.
This is a story I hear almost every other week.
Why parents send their kids to tuitions?
Parents cite several reasons why tuitions are necessary for their children
- Children do not study at home.
- We do not understand their subjects
. Childre n do not listen to us.
Parents in India often feel that going to tuition is one surefire way to get their kids to improve in studies. However, nothing can be farther from the truth than this. Tuition is recommended only when the student is genuinely finding a subject difficult in spite of all his efforts. However, most students do not fall into this category. Often students lag in studies due to lack of efforts on their part or inability or lack of knowledge on how to study systematically.
What Psychology says about studies?
Psychology states that for every 1 hour of a subject taught in school, the student must put in 2 hours of effort on that subject at home every day.
However, what parents fail to realize is that tuitions can have the exact opposite effect.
Here’s why you should not send your kids to tuitions
- Tuition curbs the child’s ability to learn on its own, make mistakes and learn by discovering what works and what doesn’t on its own.
- Tuition has the tendency to create a sense of distaste for studies in the long run.
- The child does not get individual attention when tuition involves students across classes/grades attended to by a single tuition master.
- Tuition can cause confusion among kids especially in subjects like Math if the solution method learned at school does not match the method advocated by the tuition master.
- Tuition can eat into the precious time of your child that could otherwise be used to develop creative skills.
Here are a few more points to help you decide on whether you need to send your kids to tuition.
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