Tutoring, from the teacher's perspective

Graduated from the Faculty of Literature, Hue University of Education, graduated in the mid-1980s. In nearly 10 years of teaching, I have never had an extra class.

Why is there a period when teachers rarely teach extra classes?

At that time, I did not teach extra classes for many reasons. Teaching in the highlands of Dak Lak province, most of the students were children of families who went to the new economic zone or freely migrated from Quang Nam-Da Nang, Thai Binh , Cao Bang provinces... so how could they have money to study extra classes? Moreover, even if teachers taught extra classes to improve their knowledge so that they could confidently enter the exam room, they would not have time to study extra classes because they had to work to support their families.

Extra teaching and learning now must comply with the regulations in Circular 29.

On the parents' side, many families at that time considered sending their children to school as a solution to "earn knowledge" so that later, when they passed the exams, they would have the opportunity to change their lives. Therefore, due to living conditions, the views of many parents were also very different: First, there were some families who focused on advising their children to try hard to study, spending time for them to study and review very carefully and always nurturing the desire to improve; Second, there were some families who sent their children to school to study in a "whatever happens" way, to earn any knowledge, "if not successful, then they will become human".

Among the 14 pedagogical students who graduated and went to the highlands to teach at that school, we often told each other that we should give free tutoring, sometimes teaching in class, sometimes exchanging lessons before and after school. Or if any student needed it, we could invite each other to go together to the dormitory of each subject teacher for extra guidance. Usually, it was a request from the homeroom teachers who wanted their students to improve, or maybe a few individual students who did not understand the lesson and needed extra support. That tutoring time often fell a few months before the final exam. The biggest consolation was that when we returned to school later, most of the students had grown up properly, not to mention that some of them were successful and served society.

"Grace" teaches senior classes

After many years of teaching in the highlands, I moved back to "contract teaching" at a secondary school in Dong Nai province. Because I wanted to go back but could not transfer jobs, I had to resign under the one-time severance payment system (each year of service is paid one month of basic salary). So it was like starting over, meaning the payroll was removed.

One thing that is troubling is that no one can separate the results from the extra classes or the regular classes, because the knowledge in each extra class is no different from the model in each regular class, which has been determined by textbooks, reference books, and instruction books. And each set of questions for the exams almost does not "slip" beyond that basic knowledge.

At that time, I just realized the competitive meaning of tutoring in school. A literature group of 4 people, one person teaches 4 final classes (grade 9), which is considered "warm", because almost every student has to take extra classes after hours, to compete with the entrance exam to grade 10. Similarly, other groups such as math and English are the same. Let's calculate, each class has 40 students, each student earns 20,000 VND per month in the late 1990s, multiply by about 160 students, it's a lot.

Because of the hardships, I had to ride my bike to Long Khanh market at 4am every day to buy all kinds of things (fruits, sugarcane, candy, etc.) to deliver to the shops along Highway 1A to earn money to buy milk for my children. Every time I cycled around the night before dawn, I wished to… share 1 or 2 classes so that I could teach more to reduce the hardship. That was a real dream with the difficult problem of making a living.

Students take extra classes at a cultural center after school hours in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City on the evening of February 19, a few days after Circular 29 on extra teaching and learning took effect.

On the other hand, I have attended a few classes or passed by to listen to the lectures of the teacher who received the "favor" of teaching those final classes, and the quality was not much. Compared to that, I could teach much better, but I could not get in, because with the "status of teaching on contract", I have no position or voice in the general machinery of a teachers' council where everyone is on the payroll, always "reserving" each other the best opportunities, if not to say fighting, oppressing, competing with each other to teach extra classes.

I also do not know how much the subjects that are often taught by those teachers have improved the quality of knowledge of the students in each exam. I can only admit one thing for sure: the exam results that the students receive are all positive. Almost all the scores of the students who study in a "mediocre" way can "pass", only a few are so bad that they fail the exam. However, one thing that is troubling is that no one can separate the results from the extra lessons or the regular study, because the knowledge in each extra lesson is no different from the model in each regular class, which has been determined by textbooks, reference books, and guidebooks. And each set of questions for the exams almost does not "slip" beyond that basic knowledge.

Where does the "root" of the problem of teachers' extra teaching lie?

Therefore, when receiving and reading the regulations prohibiting extra teaching or if extra teaching requires registering a business household or establishing an enterprise, I learned many things from my many days of thinking.

That is, is that regulation the root of the problem or just the tip of the iceberg? Is the regulation aimed at dealing with the current situation of a group of teachers "using classroom knowledge to teach at home", "oppressing students in all ways to make them take extra classes", or is it aimed at an education that every parent wishes for their children? Is it an education that teaches how to be a human being, soft skills to cope with life and moves towards teaching how to live, attitudes towards life, stimulating creativity and equipping knowledge in a meaningful way so that later on, students can support themselves and their families and devote their efforts to contributing and serving society.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/day-them-nhin-tu-goc-do-giao-vien-185250220183336431.htm