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19 March 2024

Is low salary forcing teachers to tuitions?

Published
By Sneha May Francis

There’s no denying the fact that it’s an extremely competitive world out there, with every student (and their parent) vying for nothing short of straight As in their report card.

Under the current scenario – where class population is (often) high and working parents struggle to help their kids in their homework – students often enrol for private tuitions for extra guidance.

And quite often, these classes are held by their school teacher.

“I recently enrolled my son for Math classes because he wasn’t getting good marks,” admits a parent, who requested anonymity. “Then, I heard his school math teacher was holding tuitions, so I decided to send him there.”

This, the parent felt, would benefit his child to stay up to speed with the class work. “There’s also peer pressure. Most of his friends were going to this class, and I didn’t want him to feel left out. Also, I felt the teacher might give him more importance because he was attending her tuitions.”

Some parents, however, do not support teachers doubling as private tutors.

“If the teacher did his/her job well then they don’t have to hold extra classes for their students. This is just their way of making more money,” argued Nitesh (name changed).

Bargain websites like Dubizzle openly advertises for such classes, with teachers charging anywhere between Dh250 to Dh1,000 per hour.

“Already teaching in a well-known school in Dubai. Can teach all subjects from early school till 10th standard. Innovative and practical teaching methods focussed towards good results. Experience of over 8 years both in India and Gulf,” reads an advertisement.

Another reads: “I’m an experienced teacher and I give French and Hindi tuition from beginners to the higher level with a good price at my home in Discovery Gardens. Come lets learn French and Hindi!!”

Although there’s still no clarity over whether such activities are illegal, it’s common knowledge that engaging in work outside their authorised area (in this case, school) is disallowed.

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA) strongly opposes such exercises.

“Private tutoring whether provided by individuals, schools themselves or private institutions is an issue of concern that needs to be put under the scanner,” says Mohammed Darwish, Chief of Regulations and Compliance Commission, KHDA.

“KHDA’s approach on the subject of private tutoring is broad and holistic. We have a multi-pronged approach where we look into schools’ efforts, the need of the students prior to developing guidelines and criterion that will govern this activity.

“KHDA encourages schools take a keen interest in the student’s learning and development, including social and over all personality development and expects schools to do the needful.”

The education regulatory authority claims that they regulate “a handful of existing training institutes that provide this activity for number of years". However, they have not allowed any new providers to enter the arena, hence preventing an unchecked growth in this sector.

KHDA’s Private School Landscape in Dubai (2012-13) could possibly highlight the real problem.

“In the 2012/13 academic year, private schools employed a total of 14,333 teachers,” reads the report.

“Annual teacher turnover remains significant. Approximately 16 per cent of the teachers that were teaching in a private school last academic year were not teaching at that school the following year.

“More than half of these new teachers to private schools have been recruited from other countries.”

Low pay and lack of structured career growth could probably be the reason that prompts some teachers to take up extra work to make up for their poor pay cheque.

Some teachers (mostly in Asian schools) are allegedly paid as less as Dh2,000.

“I have been working for over 4 years now, and haven’t been given an increment in so long,” complains a teacher of a highly reputed Indian school, on condition of anonymity.

“I’m not justifying that all teachers who aren’t paid well should start taking tuitions at home. But, the KHDA must look into our working conditions as well. It’s only fair we are given true credit for our work and remunerated adequately.

“Every year schools are allowed to increase their fees, but no one checks if some of those funds are allocated to the teaching staff. We work for nearly 13 hours, and sometimes more, but our pay is still the low.”