Academic performance and career often depends more on the home tutor than the school or college.
If the question is just about learning then there ought not be too much competition. But when the questions are about a seat in the ace engineering or medical college or maybe a job or study abroad then the question is about fierce competition. Though this competition is not usually healthy for the purpose of learning, we still have no choice to do without it either. Exploding population ought to make things worse in the days to come.
Ideally the main and most important purpose of our education should have been learning. But unfortunately learning is at the back seat today. Now the main purpose of education is the career. Job and profession have overshadowed every other aspect of education.
Schools, colleges and universities all around the world were constructed for the purpose to impart knowledge to make human life and existence more enriching and fruitful. And ideally there is no space for any unusual competition or rat race in that environment but actually such is not the case. Most of our educational organizations and mechanisms have adopted the path of unhealthy and sometimes even unethical competition in the name of development.
The School Child
A child goes to school and takes his classes on various subjects. He does his classworks and then he gets homework. Time to time he also gets assignments and projects to submit. Then there are exams, monthly to yearly, taken by school affiliation board to job interview board at different crossroads of his career.
The class is taken well and perhaps it has just a little more than 40 students. 1 class, 40 students, 1 teacher, 40 minutes. This can easily be an average Indian class statistics. How much time can one student get for his doubts, questions and personal guidance? Maybe 1 minute if the teacher has no hurry to start the next new chapter of the book. Or shall I call that 60 seconds to sound a little better?
Schools are also of many different types. There are some premium international schools, then there are many good and average private schools and many more government schools. Not every school follows the same teaching standards, rather it varies in a very wide range. Premium schools still provide some degree of individual attention and support to their students. Though in most cases it is not anywhere near enough. The situation at other categories of schools is bound to be more difficult.
In every good and active school there is usually huge pressure on students with classwork, homework, assignments, projects and of course exams. In many cases students face enough difficulties with those tasks and assignments.
In school the teacher remains ever busy with a lot of students of many different classes and sections. Still he can find a little time for a student and provide him little help in the same. But neither the teacher can have more time for answers nor the student can ask question after question in front of his peers and consequently even the teacher can get a good chance to get annoyed or irritated which is absolutely not desired.
Schools are essential and important, and so are their teachers. They have their role to play in the education of a student. But that anyhow does not imply that there should be no need for home tutors or coaching centers. They have their crucial role to play in the students’ studies and career.
Just for example, I can discuss one case that can make us feel where we stand and how important it can be to not to take home tution as a less important option. Suppose a junior school student has a great knack for Mathematics and loves to do it for long stretches of hours. But he is never satisfied with the way he does that and also with the resultant. When he became a student of senior classes, he was trying for scholarships and thought of appearing in various competitive exams like the Olympiads. Now where can he get the help that he needs?
Even if the school teachers can help him to a considerable extent still they cannot make him prepared for such exams or activities due to lack of time and energy. A school teacher cannot be expected to spend too much time and energy to help any single student for preparation of such exams and scholarships. So if not possible for just one exam or competition then how can we expect that the same school teacher can help in constructing the whole career?
Home Tutor for the Good Student and the Bad Student
I should have used the terms as strong student and weak student still used the words good and bad due to excess of convention and clarity. Though it seems that the last example of the junior school student aspiring for some Mathematical competition can be taken to belong in the category of good.
But that does not imply that bad students or weak students would not need a home tutor. Actually they will need it even more. Any parent can never predict that the concerned bad student would never turn around and start performing. Moreover it becomes essential to give him a little bit of more support and help so that he can cope up with his studies and assignments and thus keep motivated towards a positive and meaningful career option.
In many cases a student can be strong in some subject and weaker in most others. Those cases often are very sensitive as it can be possible that the student can excel and become one of the best in his favorite subject and grow his future career accordingly. But the scorecard of the school as well as the board exam are not done on one subject or two and so the student scores low in his exams. This can become a great barrier to his future career even with his favorite and strong subject.
In this case the need of a home tutor can have twofold implications. If the student has to score good in his exams then obviously he will need support and help from a home tutor for coping up with his weaker subjects. On the other hand it can be a very good idea to make him as best as possible in his favorite and strong subjects. Because in this subject he may outperform many others in his life and career. So providing a good home tutor for that subject also can be a very intelligent game changer for the student’s career.
Whatever be the case and the reasons, one thing is perhaps very evident that all the above discussed requirements of a home tutor cannot be expected to be met up by the school teacher. A school teacher normally does not have such scope and opportunities to participate in the study and career process of any student at such deep and dedicated levels. Only good home tutors can do this and thus they can play a very crucial role for the students academic performances and career establishment.