The leading front page article ’Law students taking private lessons’ (TMID, 22 September) came as no surprise to me as I can relate a similar instance when, surprisingly, mature teachers who were attending a University course for a diploma certificate in management and administration in schools also wanted to have private lessons with the lecturers.

The group of about 60 teachers who were attending this course were mostly in their 50s and had been teaching for many years in various state and private schools. Most of what we heard was certainly not new as we were all seasoned teachers.

Despite all this, one day I got to know from one of the lecturers, who happened to be a friend of mine, that a group of my colleagues approached him to give them extra lessons to enhance what he was delivering during his lectures. This lecturer was totally surprised because a University student should not resort to private lessons as if s/he was a primary school boy.

Furthermore, these same persons used to tape-record all lectures so that they could listen to what the lecturer had said later on.

The private lessons bug seems to infest all students and very few are mature enough to grasp lessons as they are delivered. No wonder, as your paper repeatedly wrote, this bug has rendered thousands of euros to many teachers!

Henry Calleja

St Julian’s