The mushroom growth of tuition centres in twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad leaves a big question mark over the credibility of education institutions and the role of teachers being responsible for the country’s future.
The tuition centres can be found in every nook and corner of the twin cities. Claiming to have qualified teachers from reputed educational institutions, these centres guarantee the passing of students in first division and some also offer money-back-guarantee in case of undesired results. Just a round of the twin cities reveal that from small posters to huge banners and signboards have been displayed by the tuition centres to woo students.
These centres also use reputed newspapers to market their services. One of the recent ways of marketing the tuition services is the SMS services where massages promoting some tuition homes are delivered to mobile subscribers. There could be multiple reasons behind the fast gaining popularity of tuition homes but could there be any reason to justify the unprofessional attitude of the teachers who are putting the future of the country’s youth at stake.
Talking to Pakistan Today, Teacher’s Association President Professor Qasim Masood said that the main reason behind the growth of tuition centres was the lack of facilities to the teachers, which forced them to look for some other options to earn a decent living. “Teachers are having minimal salaries and facilities which are not enough to make their both ends meet so they opt for tuition centres as a part time job,” he said.
Masood revealed that most of the tuition centres are owned by the teachers and sometimes the principals. He said that the only way to get rid of tuition centres was to increase the salaries and benefits of teachers so that they could perform their duties efficiently and dedicatedly. The students attending the tuition homes claimed that it were the teachers who encouraged them to take tuition after school or college time.
“The teachers said that it is not possible to give individual attention to each and every student in the strength of more than 60 students, so it was better to take admission in some tuition centre where there was relatively a thin number of students,” said a student of a government college. Demanding high tuition fee, the tuition centres are a no-go area for the students belonging to a relatively poor class.
“I can’t afford the tuition fee which is minimum Rs500 for a subject for a month but teachers in college are least interested to perform their duties efficiently,” said Ehtasham Rafique, a student of a federal government college. Many of the tuition centres are also offering home services where the tutor visits the student’s house and charged a huge some of money in return. According to sources, the home tutors demand Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 for teaching a subject for a month depending upon the time left for the exams.
Lack of evaluation and monitoring of teachers’ performance is further aggravating the problem while the government seems to have shut its eyes over the deteriorating standard of education in educational institutions which is forcing students to take admissions in tuition centres. An official of Ministry of Education, Saqib Mumtaz, said that it was not true that lack of facilities was the reason behind the growth of tuition centres.
“There was a time when teachers used to perform dedicatedly without even getting salaries,” he said. The official said that it was the moral duty of teacher to perform its duties beyond material benefits. “If the teachers could perform well in tuition centres then why not in the respective educational institutions?” he questioned.
