Tutorial Problem in Egypt’s High School

Tutorial problem in Egypt’s High school In the past couple of years, education in Egypt started decreasing in a really dreadful way. As education decreased some problems had started to exist, such as high school private tutorial or in other words special classes. Nowadays, private tutorials is something that mainly happens in most Egyptian families. Private tutorials may have limited advantages in educating students but has caused many disadvantages on students, teachers and parents. As private tutorials became more popular, many teachers as well as students started relying on them to get education or teach, for instance, a student may not attend a whole year of school and depend on private lessons to get his/her education. The ministry of Education in Egypt may be responsible of this problem because it doesn't set regulations that can reduce such a problem . The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the issue of private tutorials and the causes and effects it has on the Egyptian society. One of the causes that leads students to take private lessons at home is the limitation of time in classes. Most of the public schools in Egypt accept a large number of students with less number of classes and teachers and with the short period of each class, teachers will not be able to educate that much students. According to Nourhan Ismail in her article "Private Lessons in Egypt", in Egypt, "classes consist of 40 to 60 students if not even more", therefore that large amount of students will not be able to catch up with the teacher or understand specially that the class time is limited (2012). As a result, the limitation of time in class can cause many students to rely on private tutorials to get education. The main effect of students taking private tutorials while resting at home is the change of the concept of getting education to getting high grades. Students who may be lazy or don't want to go to school or get educated usually take private lessons with their teachers in school and pay them to pass the subject or get high grades. On the other hand, it may be teachers who ask or order their students to take private lessons to pass the subject or get high scores. Therefore, it is not a matter of getting or giving education but a matter of high grades and money. In particular, this may have caused the education in Egypt to decrease dramatically in the past few years. As mentioned by Waleed Abu al-Khair in his article "Egyptian Families Struggle with Private Tutoring Costs, "Teachers insist that students take these subjects in order to pass the school examinations" (2012). Consequently, the fact that students take private lessons leads to the misconception of getting educated. Another cause that may push students to take private tutorials is the low salaries teachers in Egypt earn. How can the low salaries that teachers receive be related to students being forced to take private tutorials? Teachers of public schools usually face a major problem in earning a good salary that can maintain an average lifestyle to their families. Therefore, teachers tend to not give lessons or teach in class so students will be forced to take private lessons at home and eventually teachers can have higher salaries. As stated by Sarah Hartmann in her studies, "it is virtually impossible for Egyptian teachers to survive on their regular salaries" (2007). In the case of teachers having low salaries and don't teach in class, students have no option but to take private tutorials to pass their examinations. Furthermore, the effect of students being forced to take private lessons because of teachers having low salaries is that private tutorials became somehow part of the Egyptian culture. Almost all the public schools in Egypt don't give attention to teachers who have low salaries therefore teachers don't educate their students in class but instead give them private lessons. Each year there's an increase of students relying on private tutorials therefore private lessons have become part of every student's culture. "Really in Egypt, it became a culture, we have to stay home to get a good rest and then attend private lesson" (Ismail, 2012). As more students rely on private lessons for education, the more it will be part of the Egyptian culture. There are so many reasons that kept this problem from being solved, such as the circumstances Egypt has been going through since the 25th of January's Revolution as the minister of education has been changed twice. That didn't give any chance to both ministers to change or regulate any rules therefore everything was left unchanged. Before the Egyptian revolution, during the black era of the old governmental system used to steal money that were needed to improve the country's education. There are several ways which can be used to solve such an issue. One of the ways is that the ministry of education should set rules and regulations to prohibit or ban teachers from giving private tutorials. This solution doesn't charge the government any financial costs. All it needs is some effort from the government to solve the issue in a practical and convenient way. Moving on to another solution, which is the Egyptian government should offer higher salaries for teachers to fulfill their needs and requirements, for instance teachers with higher salaries will do their full job in educating the students and will stop giving private tutoring as long as they're maintaining an average lifestyle. This solution might be difficult to accomplish because of the circumstances Egypt is going through since the 25th of January's revolution and will also cost the government some expenses to raise teachers' salaries. The solution may also need some effort from the government as they have to rearrange the GDP in the country and rate the number of teachers who are well qualified to educate children. This solution is effective as well as it will contribute in ending the issue of private tutoring but it needs some effort and expenses from the government to accomplish the goal. Reaching now to the last and most important solution to end the problem of private tutoring, is to improve school facilities and build classes as well as hire well-educated teachers to give a chance for every student to get good education. As well as, students will have an advantage of taking their time in class to understand and learn the required materials because of the smaller amount of students in each class. This solution may charge the government extra costs and time as they have to improve some school facilities. However, it will result in raising well-educated students who will contribute in improving the country's status. Overall, there are several reasons that cause students to take private tutoring, one of them is the limitation of time in class, for instance, in public schools there's a large number of students in each class therefore not everyone will be able to catch up or concentrate with the teacher in a short period of time. Another cause is that students are forced to take private lessons by teachers who earn low salaries because basically teachers will not provide a well education with a useless salary given by the government. The effect of relying on private tutorials to gain education lead to students as well as teachers to change the concept of "getting education" to "higher grades and better salaries". Another effect of students being forced to take private tuitions is that it is becoming somehow part of the Egyptian culture. As mentioned previously, there are several ways that can be done by the Egyptian government to lessen or stop the issue of private tutoring by improving schools facilities, higher the salaries of the public school's teachers as well as banning teachers from providing private lessons.