THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Soaring fees and ultra-hectic schedules have become the hall-mark of tuition classes in the capital city. Over the past five years, tuition fees of higher secondary school students have shot up by over 70 per cent! The average yearly expense a family today incurs on their child’s tuition fee alone is Rs 40,000. This, excluding travel expenses. The fee increases with ‘experts’. The condition is that the payment should be completed within a couple of months. There is no refund if the student discontinues. The annual fee for a single subject which stood at Rs 7,000 in 2010 has shot up to Rs 12,000 in 2016.
A typical day in a student’s life
Adi wakes up at 3:30 am, freshens up, grabs his books and races to the tuition class at 4:30 am to grab a seat in the 100-seat classroom. He then listens to the lectures.
Next stop, school, where he remains for the next 7 to 8 hours. At 4 pm sharp, he races back to his tuition class. From 4:30 to 6:30 pm he is immersed in assignments. There are ‘special’ days when he has three tuition sessions; the final one from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm.
Adi reaches home by 7 pm or 10 pm - depending on the number of sessions. Here too he has no respite as he has to finish assignments and home works that he has to submit at 5 am the next day.
Saturdays and Sundays are better compared to weekdays. They are dedicated to either entrance coaching or examinations in all the tuition centers. And on a holiday teachers compete to organise extra classes.
This has been a class XII student’s routine for the last one year.
Timings and assignments
As mentioned earlier the usual tuition hours are 5 am to 7 am and 4:30 pm to 6:30 pm. But there are special night batches from 7 pm to 9 pm also. Once a chapter is completed, students are given special assignments comprising a minimum of 100 questions and maximum of 500 to 600 questions for practice. But the reality is that over 80 per cent of students copy the answer from friends or guides. Reason: Lack of time and fear of abusive language and beatings from tuition teachers.
Why tuition classes?
Is it viable?
In a class of 70 to 100, tuition teachers can’t give special assistance to students or clarify their doubts
Students have to approach the tuition teachers during weekdays by bunking regular school, or stay back during holidays to get their doubts cleared
What they say
Class XII student:
This hectic schedule is disturbing. Migraine and appetite issues are affecting my health. Still, I must bear this for another 10 months.
Parent: Vinaya Reghu
We just want to give them the best education. If they work hard for two years surely they will have a bright future. Parents also are in a race to give their kids the best teacher and they don’t mind dropping and picking them up early morning and late at night.
The Tutors:
We do 100 per cent justice to the faith parents enlist on us. So we conduct test papers and evaluations to assess each student. Only ten percent of the students are really serious about the classes.