Does a Student Need Private Tutoring?

A recent investigation shows that about 70 percent of middle school students in cities have private tutors. Such a popular practice indicates that parents are attaching greater importance to their children’s education. However, private tutoring has both advantages and disadvantages.

On the one hand, many parents have not enough ability or time to help their children in study. Private tutoring is a good solution to this problem. In addition, private tutoring is usually one-to-one, so the teacher can know the weak points as well as the strong points of the pupil, and thus teaching is, in most cases, directly to the point.

On the other hand, private tutoring has its own disadvantages. For one thing, it takes up so much of the pupil’s time that he can hardly find enough time for rest and entertainment. For another, some tutors, busy “shuttling” from one family to another, tend to be unable to concentrate on their teaching duties as tutors.

Considering the above-mentioned, I think the disadvantages of private tutoring outweigh its advantages. In my opinion, greater emphasis should be laid on classroom teaching and practice, on the improvement of teaching quality and on the tapping of the pupil’s potential. Only in this way can a new generation be healthily brought up.