A recent investigation shows that about 80 percent of pupils have private tutors. While private tutoring has both advantages and disadvantages, parents are usually at ease if they can find a good tutor for their only-one child.
Such a popular practice indicates that people are placing greater importance on education. Many parents, for various reasons, missed the chance of obtaining a good education. When their children meet with difficulties in study, they are helpless. Private tutoring is the only one way to solve the problem. As private tutoring is usually one-to-one, the teacher knows the strong points as well as weak points of the pupil and this kind of teaching is, in most cases, direct to the points. Private tutoring benefits a lot of pupils, indeed.
While on the other hand, private tutoring has its own disadvantages. For one thing, it takes up so much of the pupil’s time that they can hardly find enough time for rest and play, which is essential for their physical and mental health. For another, some teachers, who are busy “shuttling ” from one family to another, tend to neglect their regular teaching duties. What is more, some teachers are eager to help pupils do well on the tests, offering the so-called tips for test-taking rather than help them acquire what is most need.
Generally speaking, the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. Greater emphasis should be laid on classroom teaching and practice, on the improvement of teaching quality and on the tapping of the pupils’ potential. Only in this way can a new generation be healthily brought up.