Legal loophole allows schools to give lessons as private coaching centres

The guidelines state that schools can give lessons after regular classes

Ideal School is housed in the flat of a building in Old Dhaka’s Narinda. The small institution turns into a private coaching centre after regular classes.

Most students attend the classes after the regular ones and their parents pay additional sums of money for the lessons given outside of the school hours.

“We have to study elsewhere as lessons are not given properly in schools. I started coming to the school coaching centre after the teachers called my parents and asked them to send me over,” said a sixth grader of the school.

A parent of a student of class eight said teachers suggest questions in the coaching classes and those questions are used in exams.

“Those who don’t get the suggestions cannot do well in exams. Although the suggestions lead coaching centre students to study less than others, those who don’t get the questions and get poor grades are affected mentally,” the parent said.

“This psychological damage is irreparable. The teachers are committing a crime by turning the educational institutions into business organisations.”

The parent also believes some of the parents should share responsibilities for the situation because they always want their children to do well in the competition for good grades.

Nazmin Sultana Sathi, headmistress of the school, said they do not force any student to join the coaching classes. “We take extra care of the students in the coaching classes.”

Some large schools are also accused of forcing students to join coaching classes conducted at the institutions after regular classes.

The government made guidelines to prevent school teachers from privately tutoring students in 2012. The guidelines were gazetted in 2019 but nothing has changed.

According to the guidelines, teachers cannot give lessons to students of their schools in private coaching centres.

But schools may conduct “additional classes” if the students want to take extra classes and their parents apply for those classes. The schools can charge up to Tk 300 a month per subject for those classes.

The proposed education law also has a provision to allow schools to take extra classes, with permission of the parents, by identifying students who are lagging behind others.

Parents alleged some schools started taking the additional classes in exchange for extra money claiming that the students need more lessons to make up for time lost during the pandemic shutdown.

The education ministry expressed helplessness in monitoring the schools and forcing them to follow the guidelines because of a lack of manpower.

South Point School and College in Dhaka is one of the large institutions that conduct extra classes before and after regular ones, putting pressure on the parents’ purses.

A parent of a student of class eight said the school’s coaching centre charges Tk 1,500 for English and Tk 1,000 for each of the other subjects. “The school’s regular tuition fee is Tk 3,000. We need to pay Tk 3,000-4,000 extra for the coaching. Including the transport and tiffin costs, we need to spend at least Tk 10,000 on one child’s education every month.”

“We wouldn’t have to spend extra money if the school had completed the lessons in regular classes. This is how we are forced to send our children to the school coaching centre.”

Mathematics teacher Farhana Haque claimed they do not appreciate the school’s private coaching. “Some parents feel the need for private coaching, maybe because their children didn’t study well at home during the pandemic.”

Shamsul Alam, the principal of the institution’s Malibagh branch, claimed they were conducting coaching classes in line with the government’s guidelines.

He also claimed they started the extra classes following an application submitted by the parents.

But parents said it was the school authorities that asked them to submit the application.

Sheikh Amzad Hossain, the principal of the school’s Mirpur branch, said a parent once complained that exam questions were made from handouts given in the coaching classes.

“But we found out that the same things were given in the regular classes as well.”

Secondary and Higher Education Secretary Abu Bakr Siddique said they were unaware of schools conducting private coaching classes in exchange for extra money.

“We are helpless, mostly in the education sector. We have around 30,000 secondary education institutions. How is it possible to monitor so many schools? We have many limitations.”