IndieG

My daughter tells me that almost 90% of the children in her class (Y9) are taking private tuitions in Maths, Science and English. Almost every student of Chinese and Indian origin apparently. She also heard that by the time they're doing their VCEs the figures go up even higher This is very common in India as it is so bl@@dy competitive to get admission in to the top-under grad and graduate schools. So I was frankly taken aback to find it so prevalent here.

I'd understand if this happened in a school where the school's performance was very poor and some children needed additional help to cope. What I'm talking about is a selective school, ranked #1 in Victoria. Apparently, all these children also attended intensive coaching classes just to get admission in to this school

I now think the school rankings here are a bit meaningless as it doesn't really reflect on the teaching standards. If your child is academically inclined then he/she will do well in any school irrespective of its ranking in the league tables.

Vash the Stampede

Are you taken aback to discover that the students receiving private tuition are overwhelmingly Chinese and Indian?

DeadVim

I totally agree with the last paragraph ... the MySchools thing will do more harm than good and I, as a parent, refuse to look at it ... as does my OH.

Private tution? Don't rule it out but there would have to be strong evidence for the need for it.

I swear I'm not going to be one of those pushy competitive parents ... as long as my daughter ends up with good social skills and chooses a career that she enjoys that will be OK by me.

League tables be damned.

SillyOldBag

I'm totally with you on that. My daughter is only just coming up to 8 but I always tell her just do your work, do your best and I'll be proud. There is so much pressure in life, I'm damned if I'm going to add to it.

IndieG

Same here. We've told her to choose what ever she is interested in and really enjoys.

A majority of her classmates say they want to become either dentists or doctors as "they make lots of money". Doesn't matter whether they are interested in the subject or not, the end goal is making a lot of money. A bit sad. My daughter is very sure she doesn't want to become a dentist and "stare into people's mouths all day" lol

ozzieeagle

I'm more surprised that they dont do this in the UK ?

We've always had all our kids tutored on their weak subjects. We are actually working with our 11 YO now, to ensure he gets into the right secondary school. We 300 meters the wrong side of Bell St.... which means our zoned schools are in Reservoir, which are blooody rough. So it's either get him to the good schools, south of Bell st, on special subjects (music will probably get him over the line..... or Left of Center French .... the wife will be annoyed with me for letting the language tip out of the bag)

High school same thing.... work on their weak subjects to get them into uni.

Shellfish

Oh great, so not only does Melbourne have some bizarre obsession with overpriced private school but on top of that, we also need to come up with money for extra lessons? where does it end?

NickyC

You almost definitely need the extra tuition for your kids if you want them to get into one of the state selective high schools (the ones that always top the HSC exam results). I'd imagine that it's exactly the same in Vic as it is in NSW.

There was an interesting piece in today's Herald about the success rate of these coaching colleges. http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/study-secr...0306-ppnm.html

You'll find that about 100% of the kids attending these colleges are from a chinese background. That also means that a huge proportion of the kids at the selective high schools are from a chinese background. They've got the selection criteria sewn up and if you want your kid to compete with them - they've got to join them and get the extra tuition too .

IndieG

In my experience selective schools are highly overrated. I know I won't bother with a selective school for my youngest (in Y 2 now).

My daughter didn't take any tuitions (we weren't even aware of such coaching schools) and she got into a state selective school with top scores. I have no plans to send her for any additional coaching in future either. She is doing fine and she is really enjoying the competition.

moneypenny20

A private school close to where I used to live in the UK - damned expensive - used to expect and encourage parents to get extra tuition for their children. I think it's outrageous. The extra fees you're paying for the education in the private sector should be covering superior teaching. I don't see why any privately schooled child should have to pay extra for basic education.

I don't think they should in the state sector either but realistically I can understand why it happens.

IndieG

Yeah, in India it is taken to such extremes. Can you believe there are coaching classes to get into coaching schools in turn to get admission into top colleges?

My neice didn't get admission into one of the top coaching schools (they coach students to crack the entrance test to a top management school) last year. Anyway, she studied on her own and last week my sis told me she was ranked 7th in the entrance exam (a country wide common admission test taken by around 280,000 children) !!

Margaret3

yep its a complete obsession here, both my girls are at public school, (one is now finished school), the public school that they go to has good results, coz yes, surprise, surprise, a good percentage of the kids have tutors.

I was one of those parenst , both girls had tutors, last year my daughter had one for english and biology, my youngest has one for maths, !

NKSK version 2

I agree. Which is probably a first.

neil248

Hi Deadvim

Totally agree with your second to last sentence but we used Kumon Maths for extra tuition for our daughter as it was her weakest subject, she loved it and her maths did improve whether people agree with Kumon or not.

I used to sit there waiting for her and 80% of the other kids were Asian all dropped of in a Mercedes Benz or equivalent. I suppose someone has to work hard and make enough tax money to pay the centrelink Family Tax Benefit 1&2 that the British immigrants seem keen to collect when they get here.

Our childs current school assumes that education is the parents responsibility as much as the schools and obviously the child its self.

Is it a British thing to assume that the school is wholly responsible for educating their child or baby sitting it if the poor thing does not want to work too hard.

Grayling

that is a bit of a silly statement.

Plenty of British kids also get private tuition.

My DIL is a maths teacher and spends a lot of time doing private tuition in England.