Recently, private tutoring has evolved into big business. Many students flock to different tutorial centers to get better equipped for the public exam. Some people lament the phenomenon, claiming that the trend is giving a blow to the education sector and even the growth of teenagers. Write a letter to the editor to voice your views.
Dear Editor,
I am writing to voice my views towards the phenomenon that many students join tutorial centers in our city.
As we all know, the HKDSE is extremely crucial to secondary students because their results can determine their future. With good grades, they can win a ticket to university and a job with handsome salary. Some students are so worried about if they can ace the exam, so many of them flock to different tutorial centers in order to get as much preparation as they can. While the trend grows, some people lament the phenomenon for sever reasons.
There are people claiming that the trend gives a blow to the education sector. They think that some students will pay no attention in class as they can also learn in the tutorial courses. They may solely depend on the star tutors and show no respect to the teachers in school, which is so frustrating. Some worry that students will get pressurized by joining too many tutorial classes. Their mental health can be adversely affected. Having the hectic schedules, many students may even find it hard to concentrate in school with a lack of rest. Their grades may drop and this certainly contradicts the purpose of going to the tutorials. However, I do not think that attending tutorial classes should be discouraged. It should be up to the teenagers, according to their needs in tackling the public exam.
First, tutors and teachers are complementary to each other. Why tutorial centers are getting so popular is that they provide students with practical exam skills and exam-oriented exercises. Students can obtain useful techniques for the challenging exam from tutorials. It, however, does not mean that schools are useless. Schools provide a place for students to get immersed in the academic ambience at a preliminary stage. Students can find their interested subjects and get prepared for university or even their future career. Actually teachers in schools can drill the students for exam too. Tutorials can yet help students reinforce and consolidate the knowledge they have obtained if they are not confident enough. As they have different functions, both can be beneficial to students’ learning. Teachers can also incorporate more interactive activities in class so that students would enjoy learning at school more, and therefore, they will not be replaced.
In fact, tutorials are not the culprit of the pressure inflicted on students. Some students joining excessive tutorials reveals that they are anxious about their academic results. They might find other ways to prepare themselves better like doing many supplementary exercises, even without the help from tutors. People should not point the finger of blame solely to the tutors, but understand that the pressure could be from the students themselves and their parents. Joining one class or two is definitely appropriate as the students can still have enough time for doing homework and sleeping. What really matters is how to use tutorials. Both parents and their children should understand that an appropriate timetable and optimistic mindset are the keys to getting ‘stars’ in the exam.
To conclude, tutorials can be a helping hand offered to students to deal with the public exam if they have a proper attitude. We should be open-minded, but not drawing a sweeping conclusion that the trend will simply cause a blow to the education sector and students’ growth.
Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong
Chris Wong
Marcus Chan Wai Hang
6E 2015-16