Tutorial schools are really useful to students?

Nowadays, students in Hong Kong from Secondary 1 to 7 or even as early as the primary school students have a trend to attend the tutorial schools. Once they have left the school lessons, they rush to attend these classes after schools once a week or more than once. Behind this scenario, what reasons cause them to pay extra money to tutorial schools and the benefits in attending tutorial classes are very interesting to me. Are these tutorial courses beneficial to the students who attend, or is it just a waste of time and money?

Recently, a survey was conducted by Economic Faculty of Chinese University and it showed that over 85% of students in tutorial schools are secondary schools students. Moreover, over 65% of them were dying for the examinations skills and expected tutorial schools to teach them how to tackle practical skill questions. In fact, this is the difference between a daily school and a tutorial school.

Some students who attend these tutorial schools are pleased with the style and the ways of teaching there. They say that the teachers in those tutorial schools have indeed help them to acquire good results in examinations, in particular the public ones. They also agree that the teachers in tutorial schools give interesting lessons, while the teachers in their own grammar schools give boring ones.

Nevertheless, the courses offered by those tutorial schools are often criticized to be too exam-oriented. They only teach students the techniques of capturing higher marks in the examination, instead of all-round development. However, as the education system is already an exam-orientated one, passing in the exam or getting a high grade has long been the dream of some poor students who do not know how to answer the questions in examination very well. These tutorial classes support the demand of these students. Since failing or getting a low grade in public exam may seem to the candidate that they can no longer reach the bright future if they fail in exam. Based on this pressure, many students cannot help but get enrolled in tutorial schools for predicting questions in exams and learn how to answer questions logically.

Some say that through these tutorial classes, students are able to have a more profound understanding on the curriculum. However, it is a waste of time if the same lessons appear on both the tutorial classes and the students own schools. Students may also lose concentration during their lessons in day schools because they may rely on the tutorial class and despise the lessons given by their own teachers. If it is the case, not only those students themselves have their attention dispersed, but also the other students in the class and the teacher are seriously disturbed. This is unfair and unreasonable to the others.

It is true that most students attending the tutorial schools are really hard-working and intend to get what they have paid, but some are not. Some go to tutorial schools just for the purpose of meeting friends and having fun, instead of gaining more knowledge from these extra lessons. Therefore, it is not surprising to see the students in tutorial classes eating, chatting with friends, or even talking on their mobile phones. As the teachers in these classes are not expected to punish their students who are their employers in fact, so it is difficult to control the riotous crowds in the class.

On the other hand, as the fees of tutorial schools are rather expensive, some may judge ones wealth by means of the number of tutorial classes one enrolls in. The monthly tuition they have to pay is usually around $400 a month for each subject per four lessons. Although it is not a costly spending, this fee is not easy to afford, especially for someone whose family is not wealthy.

It is also a misconception that the more the numbers of classes the students attend, the better results they will have. In my opinion, whether or not to attend these tutorial schools depends on the student himself. If he is earnest to gain knowledge in a varied way, it is not bad to attend these courses because they may help in some ways. Yet, it is a waste of time and money if he only wants to gather with his friends in a place outside schools. Many students wrongly think that attending these tutorial schools means that they will get good results as reward. But this is not always true. If they are not serious in studies, their examination grades will not be raised despite the tutorial classes they attend. It is advisable to have a careful consideration about tutorial classes they should take, or even should they take any of them before making the decision.