Schools keep forcing coaching
classes on students
AKM Atikuzzaman
Many schools of the capital are continuing private coaching of students for extra fees, ignoring the government’s directive to stop the practice.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, recently warned concerned quarters that the government would take stern action against schools and colleges for continuing the practice.
These special classes in the schools are being held for the candidates of public examinations in Class V and Class VIII for extra payment, ranging from Tk 400 to Tk 1,200 per month, in addition to the regular fees.
The guardians and students of some schools have complained that the coaching classes for extra fees have been made mandatory, and the students are compelled to attend as the teachers do not teach all that should be taught in the regular classes.
The director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Mohammad Noman-ur-Rashid, told New Age that no special classes were necessary if the syllabus was completed properly in time.
In the past few years coaching has become common for the scholarship candidates of Classes V and VIII, and the newly introduced examinations for these grades have made the schools as well as the guardians attach more importance to the extra classes.
Taking extra classes in addition to the regular ones, even on weekly and government holidays, increasing the duration of classes, making the size of the classes smaller and providing lecture sheets on the topics discussed are some of the features of the ‘special packages’.
The authorities of the schools, however, claimed that coaching was arranged in response to the guardians’ appeal, and argued that the extra fees were essential to meet the expenses of printing questionnaires, answer sheets, holding examinations, checking copies as well as teachers’ remuneration for the extra work.
Selina Akhtar, mother of a student of Class VIII in Motijheel Model School, admitted that she wanted her daughter to be given extra coaching. ‘I want my child to get good results in the exams but the teachers do not give proper lessons in the regular classes,’ she said.
A good number of guardians who have got their children admitted to these classes questioned the legitimacy of such classes and asked whether education has become pure business as the fees for these classes are many times higher than the regular ones.
‘The coaching expenses are hard to meet for the lower- and middle-income people like me,’ said Farida, a mother of two students of Class V and VIII of the Government Laboratory High School.
Some of the students said that coaching was necessary, but most of them said the quality of lessons given in the special classes was no better than that of the regular classes in most of the schools.
Many senior teachers said that the practice of extra coaching became popular when the schools started following the big schools who took the initiative of holding special classes.
‘We have to compete with the big schools in the capital, so we were compelled to take various measures including extra coaching classes,’ said M Sultan Ahmad, assistant headmaster of the school section of Ispahani Girls’ School and College.
The Saint Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, however, provides the coaching facility at no extra cost.
A few schools like the Motijheel Model High School and College have stopped the coaching programme for the students of Classes V and VIII following a decision by the school’s governing bodies but many schools in the capital continue to hold coaching classes.
When the issue of special classes was brought to the notice of the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education on Saturday, he said, ‘I will immediately instruct the director of the secondary section to stop schools from holding extra coaching classes.’
The school teachers, however, expressed mixed reaction to the decision of closing down the coaching classes.
The headmaster of a government school that offers no coaching classes said, ‘The schools will be bound to stop the practice only if the government introduces clear-cut rules and regulations banning coaching and the extra charges.’
‘No law can make teachers take the regular classes sincerely. It is the responsibility of the teachers to spread the light of knowledge,’ said Brother Nipu Hubert Rozario, vice-principal of St Joseph’s Higher Secondary School.
‘The full-fledged coaching centres will be benefited if the special classes in the schools are stopped,’ said AAM Talibur Rahman, the principal of Motijheel Model High School. ‘Then the expense of education will increase further.’
Many of the guardians said the decision to stop coaching classes in schools would not bring about a meaningful change since they said they would have to arrange private coaching for their wards as the teachers do not hold the regular classes seriously.
