The primary objective of tutoring is to assist students with their academics and guide them so that over a period of time they become good learners. Before getting help from private tutors it is important to evaluate if the child needs tuition or not. There could be a several reasons for this. The student’s teacher at school may recommend opting for a good performance because of dropping grades, difficulty in understanding or even loss of interest in studies.
Private tuitions have definitely helped students in a majority of cases but in the long run it is important to decide if it is necessary or has it just become a crutch for the student. It is therefore important to evaluate the pros and cons of opting for private tuitions. Let us first discuss the benefits of private tuitions.
What are the benefits?
The primary benefit is that a private tutor, unlike teachers at school, would move at the student’s pace. This would help the student in understanding complex concepts from scratch. This is not possible in the classroom if you have missed out something as the rest of the class cannot wait for one person.
A private tutor can take you through these concepts in a way that you would understand and you have the liberty to go over it again and again till you can master the concept. This would then help you be prepared for more complex topics that may come up in the classroom.
Private tutors can provide academic assistance to students tailored specifically to their needs and habits. This is only possible when one can provide one to one attention to the student. Some children respond better to visual stimuli while others learn better through practical examples.
Different children have different preferences when it comes to the method of learning and it is not possible to impart education on a one to one basis in the classroom. This is only possible in case of a private tutor who can help a child find his/her way through the education system without behind.
Private tutors can also help students with learning disabilities whose dream of a proper education is cut short due to lack of facilities or individual attention at school. Reading disability (dyslexia), disability in writing (dysgraphia) and auditory and visual processing disorders can get in the way of a student’s academic development.
A private tutor who specializes in education of differently abled children can help their academic growth in a big way. It wouldn’t be surprising if with the assistance of their private tutors these differently abled kids recognize their true potential and prove to be smarter than the rest.
What are the rest of things?
Besides helping students with concepts in core subjects, private tutors can also help them with vital skills such as time management, making notes, skimming through text to get relevant information, ways to understand what is being taught in normal classrooms and to understand what to concentrate on while studying for examinations.
Private tutors also help the student understand how to better communicate their thoughts and instill confidence in them.
- Having a private tutor can be extremely flexible as they can fit into your daily routine based on your requirements and do not take up the time for your hobbies, sports and other activities. This ensures that children have an overall development despite giving more time to academics.
- The student can also have a private tutor come to his/her house instead of going to them. This saves the student a lot of time that may get wasted in travel which has no fruitful result. The convenience of being able to study at home also makes sure that the student is not tired as a result of travelling and can concentrate while they learn.
- Having a private tutor gives the child access to several alternate materials for study. A good tutor has good references and uses alternative teaching methods which may stress less on structure and more on learning through discovery. This helps students truly learn and retain information.
- A private tutor also helps a student set targets and objectives for themselves which may not always pertain to academics but helps in the overall development of the child. These targets may have no relation to the student’s school curriculum but may teach him/her very important life skills. They may also help students develop good habits such as reading or other things that fall into their field of interest.
- With increasing complexity in curriculum, the students find it hard to cope with the increasing volume of homework and assignments.
- Having a private tutor can ease out that pain as their guidance can go a long way in providing a strategic method to cope with this increasing workload. It also ensures that they do not waste valuable time if they are stuck at a problem and can get help from the tutor in order to move ahead with these assignments.
- Having a private tutor also has an added advantage of relieving parents of some of their duties such as guiding them during their homework sessions. This also helps avoid unnecessary conflict between parents and growing children.
- Although there are many benefits to having a private tutor it may not be the advisable solution in many situations. Private tuition is an expensive affair and not every parent can afford to have their children home tutored.
- Many a times a student may be pressurized into taking up private tuitions by their parents. However, this is not correct and the initiative to opt for private tuitions should come from the student based on his discretion and need.
- Parents often see private tuitions as the sole solution to their child’s bad grades without understanding the actual reason behind this. Even if the child really needs help of a private tutor, if the parents act too pushy it may turn a child rebellious and he/she may not open up to their tutors.
- Very often private tuitions become a habit and children get used to being spoon-fed. As this habit develops children lose their natural inquisitive nature and begin to develop a habit of rote learning.
- This is extremely detrimental to the development of a child and does not nurture his curiosity for learning. They start depending on tuitions for their homework, assignments, projects and all other academic activities that are actually meant to be taken up independently by the student in order to force him/her to think opening up his mind to ideas and learning.
Private tuitions can very often bite into the child’s time for extracurricular activities, sports and other hobbies. All of these are very important for a well-rounded development of young minds. Mental development should go hand in hand with physical development.
Parents should encourage children to take up hobbies related to their interests in the free time that they get instead of pushing them towards tuitions for some other subjects. Music, reading and other such activities can be very stimulating for the minds.
Another important aspect to keep in mind is that the private tutor is not a part of your family and may not care for a child in the way parents do. In a worst-case scenario, the parents may not even be aware of the tutor’s real background. He could be a bad influence on the child or may even be dangerous.
Parents often forget that their duty doesn’t end at getting someone to help with their child’s homework. They should also keep a check on the tutor.
Atlast we must remember.
To summarize the above points, it is important for parents to discuss and evaluate their child’s need of private tuitions before they take any steps on this matter. Private tuitions can be beneficial in some cases and may be a hindrance to your child’s growth in others.
Parent’s objective should be to provide their children with proper opportunities for a well-rounded growth instead of curbing their interests. And therefore for more updates you may look into finding the right solutions to overcome homework burden of students.