School systems as breeding grounds for shadow education: Factors contributing to private supplementary tutoring in West Bengal,India

In the academic literature, private supplementary tutoring is widely known as shadow education, in part because it is commonly indistinct and because much of its content mimics that in mainstream schooling. Around the world, shadow education has become an important part of students' lives and in some places it diminishes the body that it mimics. This paper builds on studies that have focused on relationships between schooling and shadow education. The paper uses the conceptual lens of privatisation-by-default, and employs qualitative methods to understand the roles of both government and private schools in promoting tutoring in West Bengal, India. It finds that substantial proportions of shadow education emanate from and are fostered by school systems. On the one hand private tutoring as a form of privatisation-by-default gives freedom of choice, but on the other hand it limits choice. Further, school-bred tutoring can have a negative backwash on school systems. As such, private supplementary tutoring is not just a neutral shadow but affects the body that it imitates. The study recommends researchers to look back at schools to gain a deeper understanding of private supplementary tutoring.     

Private supplementary tutoring among primary students in Bangladesh

Using the databases created under Education Watch, a civil society initiative to monitor primary and basic education in Bangladesh, this paper explores trends, socioeconomic differentials and cost in private supplementary tutoring among primary students and its impact on learning achievement. The rate of primary school students getting access to private supplementary tutoring is increasing at two percentage points per year and reached 31% in 2005. Incidence of private tutoring was greater among boys and urban students than respective counterparts. Educated parents and well‐off families were more likely to arrange supplementary tutoring for their children. A wide variation in the cost for private tutoring prevailed. The tutees spent 46% of their total private expenditure for education on supplementary tutoring. Supplementary tutoring helped students learn more than those who had no such support. Private tutors for primary school students have become a well‐accepted norm. Finally, a number of social implications are discussed.     

Private Subtractory Tutoring: The Negative Impact of Shadow Education on Public Schooling in Myanmar

An expanding literature focuses on the so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring, and contributes to understandings of the nexus between in-school and out-of-school learning. This paper, contextualised in broader literature, draws on questionnaire and interview data from students, teachers, principals, parents and other stakeholders in Myanmar, and observes that shadow education may subtract as well as supplement. For some decades, public education in Myanmar has suffered from financial stringency, large classes, and overloaded curriculum. Students and their families have sought private tutoring, particularly from public school teachers, to supplement school education; and teachers and other providers have welcomed the revenue that they can earn. As a result, private tutoring has become embedded in the lives of many students and teachers, and has consumed time and energy supposed to be spent on school education. However, the private tutoring has also helped to keep the school system running.     

Marketising private tuition: Representations of tutors’ competence,entrepreneurial opportunities and service legitimation in home tutoring business manuals

Education researchers have explored the marketisation of schools resulting from neoliberal education policy, but little attention has been paid to supplementary education markets. Supplementary education services, such as private tuition, are delivered outside of school but designed to improve performance within it. A small body of research demonstrates that the private tuition market in the UK and the USA is burgeoning, and that students’ access to this service is differentiated by region, class and ethnicity. These emerging demand-side analyses are vital, but they cannot tell us about the educational entrepreneurship that shapes the supply of private tutoring services. This article addresses this lacuna through a discourse analysis of manuals, published as part of the developing tutoring support industry, that are designed to guide would-be entrepreneurs through the establishment of a private tuition business. This analysis excavates manuals’ treatment of: tutors’ motivation to work in the sector and their competence to do so; strategies to be employed in the marketisation of tuition services; and the need to build trust to ensure business legitimation in an unregulated industry. In conclusion, the article sets a new agenda for research into fast-developing supplementary education markets that explores: (i) the dynamics of this expanding educational workforce of private tutors; (ii) the ways marketisation addresses and augments parental anxiety about children's education; and (iii) the need for safeguarding and quality control in private tuition.     

Private tutoring through the internet: globalization and offshoring

The private tutoring industry has come forward as the third great sector of education. The common sense representation about private tutoring is changing. The growing search for supplementary educational support services and the technological innovation have created a new paradigm. This paper focuses on one of the most interesting faces of this new phenomenon: the rise of private tutoring through the internet. The very promising market is considered by some analysts as a true explosion on the offer and demand levels. Many families are feeling increasingly unable to provide their children the “extra help” they need to meet the requirements of further steps in the education system. So, for several reasons, they are outsourcing and even offshoring this so important and competitive task. The field is full of learning and market opportunities. This is the new globalized world of the less shadow and progressively growing private tutoring in the XXI century.     

Demand for private supplementary tutoring: conceptual considerations, and socio-economic patterns in Hong Kong

Despite the fact that in some parts of the world private supplementary tutoring is a huge industry with far-reaching economic, social and educational implications, the topic has been neglected by educational researchers. This paper focuses on the nature and determinants of demand for private supplementary tutoring. It first draws on literature from a wide range of countries to identify some conceptual considerations, and then presents data on socio-economic patterns of demand for tutoring in Hong Kong. It highlights the complexity of the topic, and calls for further detailed research in multiple settings.     

Shadow education: patterns and scale of private supplementary tutoring in English in secondary education at urban Dhaka in Bangladesh

Private supplementary tutoring with an additional fee is generally called shadow education, and this has become a common phenomenon in urban Dhaka, where patterns and scale of tutoring in English have been remarkable in recent years. This study used a mixed-methods approach that included quantitative and qualitative data collected from a survey and individual interview. Tutoring in English has been a regular feature of the teaching profession in this urban area. The paper examines various patterns of private tutoring in English and focuses on the amount of tutoring, including the tutoring received and not received by students in urban Dhaka. It shows the variations of scale regarding tutoring in English between male and female students. The study also identifies different types of private tutors who deliver supplementary tutoring. Finally, the choices pupils make regarding their evaluation on the effectiveness of shapes of tutoring in English are discussed.     

The effectiveness of private tutoring: students’ perceptions in comparison with mainstream schooling in Hong Kong

This paper examines Hong Kong students’ perceptions on the effectiveness of private supplementary tutoring relative to mainstream schooling. Drawing on survey and interview data, it shows that large proportions of secondary school students receive private tutoring. Students generally perceive private tutoring and private tutors to be more effective in the provision of examination support compared with mainstream schooling and teachers. However, perceptions vary according to students’ self-reported academic levels and motives for taking private tutoring. The operations of the parallel sector of private tutoring have significant implications for the nature of schooling and therefore need to be considered by teachers and school administrators. The Hong Kong data contribute to the international analysis of private tutoring and add a significant component to the wider conceptual literature.     

Are there educational and psychological benefits from private supplementary tutoring in Mainland China? Evidence from the China Education Panel Survey, 2013–15

We investigate the educational and psychological benefits from participating in private supplementary tutoring in Mainland China. We use the 2013–2015 China Education Panel Survey data on junior high school students and a difference-in-difference and propensity score matching research design. Our results show that private tutoring is positively associated with higher English scores for rural students only. For all students and across most sub-groups, we find that private tutoring is associated with lower frequency of students' self-reported negative emotions. The data, however, do not permit deeper inquiry into the role of the quality and quantity of private tutoring.     

Responsibilising parents: the nudge towards shadow tutoring

This article considers moral agendas projected onto parents that mobilise them to supplement school literacy education with private tutoring. The theoretical frame draws on the concepts of responsibilisation as emerging market-embedded morality, ‘nudge’ social policies, edu-business and hidden privatisation in education. This framing is applied to two empirical moments: firstly, debates around the Australian government’s ‘Tutorial Voucher Initiative’ of 2004; and secondly, tutoring advertisements and items in school newsletters collected in early 2016. In the first moment, parents were somewhat reluctant to take up free supplementary tutoring; in the second, private literacy tutoring is increasingly normalised and legitimated as parents are nudged to supplement the work of the school.     

Private tutoring and mass schooling in East Asia: reflections of inequality in Japan, South Korea, and Cambodia

This paper examines private tutoring systems in three East Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, and Cambodia) with the purpose of examining the relationship between those systems and formal education systems. The study of private tutoring systems in each nation can be used to reveal the inadequacies of the formal education system in meeting the ideal of equal opportunity of education in relation to high-stakes examinations. In each nation, the private tutoring system functions as a “shadow education market” to absorb unmet demand for additional education in a parasitic relationship with the formal system. Governments have enacted various policies to respond to the growing private tutoring systems which have proven largely ineffective and often led to further expansion. Pedagogical and curricular practices in the private tutoring systems have functioned to increase “anxiety” and “insecurity” in regard to the formal education system with the purpose of expanding the market. Studies of mass schooling systems and equal opportunity are incomplete without due consideration toward the role of the private tutoring system. Efforts toward education policy-making and reform to further the ideal of equal opportunity of education must be informed by such research on private tutoring.     

School factors underlying demand for private supplementary tutoring in English: urban and rural variations in Bangladesh

Private supplementary tutoring has long existed in Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the world, but in recent decades has become much more visible. Much tutoring “shadows” or reproduces formal schooling as fee-based academic teaching outside school hours. This paper focuses on school factors that shape demand for private supplementary tutoring in English at the secondary level, drawing on data gained from both quantitative and qualitative methods. The paper is especially concerned with urban and rural variations, noting that rates of tutoring are greater in urban areas but that many factors converge to create similarities. Private tutoring in English is highly demanded because English is a compulsory course; and in addition to being a subject in its own right, it assists in the learning of other subjects. While private tutoring may support the academic learning of some pupils, it also has problematic dimensions. As such, the spread of tutoring across urban and rural areas is not necessarily to be welcomed.     

Private Supplementary Tutoring in the Czech Republic

The study contributes to the literature on private supplementary tutoring by shedding light on this phenomenon in the Czech Republic. The aim of the paper is to identify the reasons for seeking out private supplementary tutoring and to assess the factors underlying its demand. In the representative sample of 1,265 senior upper-secondary school students from two distinct regions of the Czech Republic, 37% acknowledged participation in private tutoring lessons (provided by individuals) and 10% reported enrollment in preparatory courses for university admission (organized by institutions) during their upper-secondary studies. It seems that both enrollment in different educational tracks and specific school subjects are associated with different reasons for taking private tutoring lessons. The results of binary logistic regression suggest that the mother’s educational attainment, family income, students’ academic performance, residence in the capital city, and female gender are significant predictors of students’ enrollment and participation in the explored private tutoring activities. These findings confirm the strong influence of family background on educational attainment identified in previous Czech social-stratification research. In a wider European context, the patterns of private supplementary tutoring resemble those in neighboring countries.     

Supplementary tutoring in Trinidad and Tobago: Some implications for policy making

Globally, private supplementary tutoring is a huge business and the practice is expanding rapidly in many regions of the world where it never existed before. In some of these regions it is posing a novel set of challenges for education planners and policy makers. The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which supplementary tutoring is impacting on the goals of the formal education system in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T). The participation rate in supplementary tutoring at primary school level in T&T was found to be high (88.2 per cent at Standard Five level), with the majority of the students being privately tutored by their regular school teachers. Their main motivation for taking private tutoring lessons was to try to secure a place in one of the few elite secondary schools in the country. The authors of this paper admit that there is no quick solution to the problem, especially if it is understood as a part of the process of cultural change. They contend that the key to breaking the elitist tradition lies in modifying public understanding about education and convincing parents and citizens at large that a wide range of options and opportunities exists outside the narrow confines of the old colonial economy and the old colonial schools.     

Intensity and content of private tutoring lessons during German secondary schooling: effects on students’ grades and test achievement

Private supplementary tutoring is a widespread phenomenon. However, evidence that private tutoring has positive effects on academic achievement or about the specific conditions of successful private tutoring is rare. Adapting Carroll’s (1963) model for school learning to private tutoring, we expected to find positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, and students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. In a sample of eighth-grade students in German secondary schools (N = 8510, 18.6% currently being tutored), we conducted regression analyses with multiple covariates and did not find a positive main effect of private tutoring attendance in any of the school subjects examined. Moreover, within the subsamples of tutored students, we were not able to identify positive effects of tutoring duration, tutoring intensity, tutoring content (such as a focus on homework completion, test preparation, or study behavior), or students’ motivation to attend private tutoring. Given these disillusioning findings, we primarily derive suggestions for future research.

     

Redefining professionalism: Romanian secondary education teachers and the private tutoring system

This study is an attempt to outline and to account for the professional identity and practice of the Romanian teachers since the beginning of the 1990s. An increasingly austere economy as well as profoundly altered social conditions and a number of educational reforms resulted in a marked diminution of the teacher's social and professional status. One of their principle strategies to offset this steady tendency has been to invest ever more time and effort in private tutoring. Their aim is thus to retrieve their lost authority and to counterbalance recent education policy changes. Supplementary private tutoring has grown into a parallel system of education that displays features commonly associated with the very notion of professionalism: technical culture, a commitment to service ethic, and autonomy in planning and implementing their practice. Furthermore, supplementary private tutoring helps Romanian teachers to secure advantages that are otherwise denied to them: it is rather as private tutors than as professionals that they enjoy a relatively respectable social status, economic rewards, and even political influence.     

北京市中小学学生数学补习的影响因素分析

补习教育带给家庭和社会一种及其矛盾的情感,它本身不仅是具有深远的经济意义的产业,而且会对社会产生复杂的影响.为了向公众描绘一个更加清晰和全面的关于补习教育的图景,选取北京8所普通小学和5所普通中学的2 089名被试,以学校、家庭、个人为背景变量分别探讨影响数学补习次数和态度的因素.结果表明:(1)中等水平学校学生数学补习行为最积极.(2)母亲受教育水平较高,子女参加数学补习行为较积极.(3)小学生参加数学补习时间较多,态度较积极;中等数学水平学生补习态度最积极.(4) Logistic回归分析显示,学校水平、母亲受教育水平和年级对中小学生数学补习时间的累积贡献率为8.5％.分层线性回归分析显示,年级对中小学生数学补习态度的贡献率为4％.     

城市义务教育阶段学生校外补习教育状况的调查与思考

采用随机抽样的方法对兰州市N区的2所补习学校的4—9年级的48名同学进行了调查,并对问卷和访谈资料进行了数据统计分析。结果表明：学生接受补习的主要原因是提高成绩;学生对补习教育的需求广泛存在;补习教育影响了学生正常的学习和生活;补习教育的广泛存在加剧了教育的不公平。     

Differentiated demand for private supplementary tutoring: Patterns and implications in Hong Kong secondary education

A growing number of students around the world receive private tutoring in academic subjects. Such tutoring is widely called shadow education because it mimics regular schooling as the school sector grows, so does the shadow; and as the curriculum in the school changes, so does the curriculum in the shadow. Private tutoring has long been a significant phenomenon in East Asia, but has not received adequate research attention.This paper focuses on private tutoring in Hong Kong. It draws on data collected through questionnaires from students in Grades 9 and 12, and analyzes the factors which shape the demand for private tutoring. The paper highlights the influence of school, family and individual factors on students’ demand, and reports on students’ declared reasons for taking private tutoring. It commences with a broad comparative picture, and concludes by showing what the Hong Kong data add to wider conceptual understanding.     

Household expenditures on private tutoring: emerging evidence from Malaysia

Private tutoring has been a burgeoning phenomenon in Malaysia for decades. This study examines the determinants of private tutoring expenditures in Malaysia using the 2004/2005 Household Expenditures Survey and applies hurdle regression models to the data. The results indicate that total household expenditures, household head’s level of education, household head’s gender, number of school-age children, and home ownership are important determinants of private tutoring expenditures in Malaysia. In comparison with Malay households, Chinese and Indian households have a higher likelihood of enrolling their children in private tutoring and spending on private tutoring. Indigenous households are less likely to spend for tutoring, but once their children are enrolled, they spend more than their Malay counterparts. Regional characteristics are also important determinants of private tutoring expenditures.