On Thursday, the Education Ministry issued a statement in which it stressed “reducing the phenomenon of private tutoring which pushes students to dependency and a tendency towards memorization, far from self-learning and acquiring the needed skills.”
According to the Ministry’s statement, they have taken several measures to reduce the phenomenon of private lessons, such as airing educational lessons on the Educational Satellite Channel, especially for middle and high schools students. It has also worked on developing the evaluation system, which concerns the productivity of the learner and not just the grades he acquires.
Al-Muthanna Khaddour, an official in the Ministry, said that the electronic educational platform had been established in the National Curriculum Development Center, which is a site for direct communication between students and elite teachers and instructors, with space given to exchange information, skills and answer all questions and to provide opportunities for creativity, and the expansion and enrichment of curricula.
Khaddour said that private tutoring had become a phenomenon that displeased everyone and benefited some teachers, and that students and guardians suffered from its effects. Therefore, the Ministry was working to establish educational courses at symbolic rates in schools, in cooperation with the Revolutionary Youth Union and the Teachers Syndicate as an alternative to private tutoring for students. He pointed to the need to follow up on the work of teachers inside the classrooms through specialist and educational guidance to ensure the teacher is carrying out his work in an ideal fashion and to help him to provide the educational process in the best possible form.
This article was translated and edited by The Syrian Observer. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this article lies entirely with the author.
