A recent newspaper report (The Malta Independent on Sunday) estimated that 78 per cent of Fourth and Fifth Formers attend private lessons. This figure approximates the 84 per cent figure for Years Five and Six Primary School pupils, estimated by an ex-student of mine quite some time ago. I hazard to guess that most Sixth Formers attend private lessons in one or more subjects. In spite of educators’ disapproval, the phenomenon persists and pervades our education system. One reason is that private lessons provide students, teachers and parents with a win-win state of affairs. Regrettably, the ubiquitous service, some call it an industry, also creates problems.

Students as winners

If students encounter problems with subject content during regular school lessons, they can relax in the knowledge that their difficulties would be solved at the next private lesson session. For the same reason, some students feel they can afford not to pay too much attention to the teacher’s explanations and in the process disturb their colleagues’ concentration. Others go as far as totally ignoring the teacher and devote classroom time to complete work assigned in other lessons. In extreme cases, some students absent themselves from class altogether assuming that private lesson will fill the gaps. Private lessons offer students a safety net for missed opportunities in class.

There are other attractions: teenagers regard private lessons as a social event where boy-meets-girl, before, during and after the session. I am certain a number of readers can vouchsafe that many an encounter at private lessons sprouted into romance and flourished into happy, lasting marriages. Some students consider private lessons as another way to get away from home with no parental or other supervision before and after the session. A few really cheeky brats cheat on their parents, pretend to attend lessons and retain the unspent tuition fees as extra pocket money. In short, the majority of students would object to the abolition of private lessons.

Teachers as winners

So would those teachers who derive additional income from the after-hours tuition service. In their free time, they can do what they like doing best, ie teach: and get extra pay for it too. The added remuneration can accrue considerably depending on the number of lessons they deliver per week, the number of students per session, and the fees they charge. The elite providers of private lessons regard a weekly extra income of six to eight hundred euro as modest. And they do not have to pay VAT or Income Tax.

Parents as winners

How can it be a winning situation for parents, they fork out the cash? True, but private lessons do not only lighten their purses, they also ease their burdens. Not all parents can help their children with homework and studies; some have not had the proper schooling themselves; some can deal with certain subjects but not others. All welcome the assistance. Other still are too busy with their businesses, their shops, their overtime, even their leisure activities, and are quite willing to delegate the task of educating their children to the schools in the morning and private lesson providers in the evening. Some parents, mothers especially, working or not, have to look after younger offspring besides carrying out normal household chores. They simply cannot find the time or the energy to deal with their children’s after school assignments. Private lessons provide costly but welcome help.

Moreover, parents send their children to private lessons for a worthy cause: they yearn to give their children the best possible chances of scholastic success. Parents are convinced that extra tuition enhances the children’s grades and improves their placing in the class honours list. Even parents of primary school pupils believe that private tuition fees serve as a sound investment for their kids’ eventual success at SEC, Matriculation and ultimately university. Which parent, so convinced, will risk lessening her/his children the chance of academic success by depriving them of private lessons? They endure the financial sacrifice because they are anxious to do the utmost for their offspring. Besides, parents and students derive a sense of security because everybody else is doing it.

Parents as losers

Unfortunately, there is a downside side to the private lesson phenomenon. Let us continue with the parents and their financial burdens. There are families who can easily afford to pay extra tuition fees, and then some. On the other hand, some can barely cope with the normal household budget let alone pay extra for private lessons for one child and certainly not for the second and third sibling. These parents develop a sense of guilt and the frustration that they may be letting down their children. Many more take on a second job or overtime to cover the costs of their children’s private lessons, sometimes in addition to independent school fees or Church schools ‘contributions’. The financial burden can be very heavy on some families.

So what, you may argue, life is tough and can be unfair: my neighbour drives a BMW, I can only afford a Cinquecento, and my other neighbour walks. Such arguments do not carry any weight when applied to an essential service like education and when parents believe their children’s future is at stake. Few, if any, would envy the BMW owner, and the other neighbour walks because he loathes driving. Compared to our children’s education these are minor issues. Most people would go to all lengths to ensure that their children enjoy the same educational opportunities and the same chances of scholastic success as the rest. And, if one is convinced that private lessons make a difference, somehow one tries to generate the money through multiple jobs, skimping on comforts, postponing a badly needed holiday, making do with a hopelessly damaged appliance. Parents make such sacrifices willingly, regardless of the fact that the families’ quality of life suffers. Conversely, time and money saved on unnecessary private lessons can be utilised for other activities and facilities that benefit the whole family. If you think that I am using hyperbole, look closely around you and you may discover that not all households are as affluent as your own.

Children as losers

Children suffer too. When parents devote precious time to doing multiple jobs to earn extra income, whether it is to pay for private lessons or anything else, the children’s relations with Mum and Dad become strained. The parents return home stressed out and irritable, with family quality time becoming the major casualty. Other casualties due to the time students spend at private lessons are sports activities, cultural events, participation in youth clubs, creativity through arts and crafts, even playing and having fun with siblings and pets. Again, am I laying it too thick? Ask the stakeholders.

Teachers as the biggest losers

Paradoxically, the greatest losers in the private lesson phenomenon are the teachers. They benefit from extra income, but the teaching corps as a whole suffers through the loss of prestige and esteem. This is a complex issue and needs some clarification.

To be sure, some private lesson tutors derive the gratification and prestige, which they are often denied at school. They do help students learn; they do coach students to succeed in exams. For these services students and parents are grateful, and willingly pay tuition fees, often with a present at the end as a token of gratitude and respect. At this point several teachers I know come to mind: an Accounts tutor, a teacher of English, another of Maths and Physics, and yet another of Computer Studies, among many others. They were hugely respected by students and parents alike. They also had common characteristics: they were dedicated and excellent teachers, and acted on the principle of refusing to give private lessons to students who attended their own classes at school. These teachers argued that they gave their best and their all during school hours, and consequently their own class students would not benefit any further by attending extra lessons in the evening.

And here lies the teachers’ Trojan horse. People acknowledge that students performing poorly at school need the extra tuition. However, some disturbing questions may lurk in many people’s minds: why do my children grasp so well a subject’s content in one hour of P-L, when they fails to do so in five hours of tuition at school? Do teachers need extra income to deliver a complete job? Are teachers exploiting parents’ desire to provide their children with the best educational opportunities?

Such doubts are strongest among those who already begrudge teachers’ working conditions citing short hours and long holidays. The extra income derived from private lessons nourishes suspicions that teachers allow avarice to tarnish their professional service. In the process, the recognition of teachers’ real contribution to society’s welfare gets corroded. Their esteem and professional status suffer.

It would be grossly unfair to accuse all teachers of delivering a poor essential service with dishonourable intentions since it certainly is not the case. The vast majority provide an excellent, dedicated service at school. They provide private-lessons because the over-competitive nature of our society for scholastic achievement has created the demand, not the other way round.

Unfortunately, not everyone views the situation in an enlightened way. The issue of private lessons creates doubts about teachers’ full commitment to the well being of our future citizens, and the sooner our educational system controls the phenomenon, with its few wins but many losses, the stronger the formal educational service will become.

Professor Farrugia was the Founder-Dean of the Faculty of Education and Pro-Rector of the university. Currently, he is the University Ombudsman.