Teachers not allowed to privately tutor students of own schools

The education ministry has sent the final draft of the education act to the cabinet division in which the scope of tutoring students privately at home and coaching center has been retained.

The act says teachers will be allowed to teach students privately after school hours. However, teachers are barred from tutoring students from the educational institution where they teach – which the educationists opined too difficult to implement.

The educationists argued there are innumerable educational institutions across the country. Therefore, it is difficult to oversee who is teaching whom privately at home and coaching at centres.

The discussion over the act has been underway since 2011. It is alleged there has been a long delay in finalising the act due to some issues, including coaching and guidebook businesses.

According to the draft act, running coaching centers or teaching there will not be banned. Registration will be required for running a coaching center. However, no teacher will be allowed to teach students from their own educational institution in the coaching centres. The teachers cannot teach their own school’s students privately at home.

Additional classes beyond the school hour will be arranged after taking guardians' consent at a fee set by the government.

Education minister Dipu Moni said coaching cannot be closed permanently as there are some students in the class who are relatively weaker than the rest. Besides, it is not possible for all parents to help their children study properly.

In this case, they have to knock on the door of the coaching centres. However, it is unethical that many teachers force their students to hire them for tutoring. They want to stop such practice.

Dipu Moni said there will be no need to hire a tutor at home if the fresh curriculum is implemented.

Jashore education board's former chairman Amirul Alam Khan told Prothom Alo that there are innumerable educational institutions across the country. In the given circumstances, who will oversee who is teaching who at home? So, the best thing is to complete the class tasks in the educational institution which will require skilled teachers.