ALTHOUGH it is illegal to coach in primary schools the tendency has increased after the introduction of the final examination. 86 percent of students in the past year prepared for the school examination by coaching while for 78 percent of public school students coaching was compulsory. Campaign for Popular Education Alliance, a non-governmental organization working in education sector, came up with a research report. Last year, nearly 7 million students took part in the Primary School Certificate Examination (PSC) — the biggest public examination held annually. According to the report, the pass rate increased and there were other irregularities including question paper leakages.
The increase in the education cost of the students is worrying and a burden to middle-class families. Children are being deprived of the joy of learning and the opportunity to be creative as guidebooks are taking the place of real textbooks. When asked about it the Director General of the Department of Primary Education, said the main evil is coaching in exchange for money. According to the report, an average of 41 hours of coaching occur in schools in a year. And 44 percent of all high school teachers are involved in coaching. 63 percent of the schools as well as coaching centres conduct model tests on their own initiative. In no other country in South Asia, coaching is so rampant and cheating so frequent as the stresses of the first ever public examination of their lives make students desperate to only pass and not to learn.
Expert educationists, teachers, parents and others demanded the cancellation of the test. Primary and Mass Education Secretary agreed with the report but said however, the cancellation of the test can’t be a decision taken alone. The government would consider it. The high percentage of the passes does not indicate any pressure, he said.
It is very simple to find methods to ensure that the students do well. Increased time spent studying at schools would ensure that the need for coaching is absent. Increased payments to teachers would ensure that they don’t remain financially weak and thus feel the need to earn extra income by coaching students.
Coaching has become a bane of our education system – parents are forced into it by the pressure that their children go through to ensure that they have access to the best teachers but the eventual decision to send them to tutorials does not necessarily indicate success. It is a no win situation which can only be stopped by perhaps banning the exams at the primary level — students are too young to take the pressure.
