Tutoring in Hong Kong

By Trevor (Age 14, Hong Kong International School)

In this lively metropolis of Hong Kong, there is one thing that almost all parents agree on: their child needs tutors. The richer the parents are, the more well-known their child's tutor is going to be. On the other hand, even slightly poor families may sacrifice one of their lesser necessities to allow their child to hire a tutor or to send their child to a tutoring center. What is it in the word tutor that makes all the parents think that they are important? One of the reasons is because tutors are private; they never teach large groups, which means that students get more personal help and attention when needed. Another reason for this is because tutors can give comments based on what is written instead of comparing it with another student's work, so the criticism, in a way, can be more original. Still, the question remains: why can't the student do it by him/herself?

My way of viewing this is that tutoring is not exactly essential for students to be able to excel academically. If students focus and take notes in class, then there would be no need for revision from tutors. Teachers in school should already be teaching students what is needed to obtain higher grades. If this were not so, then how do some of the world's most wealthy people earn their statuses without education? What about Lee Ka Shing? Not only did he not have tutors, but he also never received proper education before in his life. Where did he get his inspiration and ideas? Tutors? It is true, however, that tutors may be the spark that lights up the splinter, but this isn't the case for everyone.

Obviously, there are some students who do better with the help of tutors. As a rule of thumb for public school kids in Hong Kong, people with more tutors tend to receive higher grades. However, what people don't do is see things beyond these statistics. More tutors will mean that the families are wealthier; the wealthier a family, they have a propensity of being more knowledgeable. These rich parents may not be educated, but definitely smart one way or another. From the students with poor family backgrounds that still have a chance to have a tutor, almost all of them achieve better grades as well. Why? One reason is because these students usually do not get much attention or that their parents don't have enough proficiency on the subject in which their child needs help on. Thus, these students typically get better grades than those who do not have tutors, but not as well as those with many tutors - the rich kids. From this information, people then start to say that it is a generalization for everyone, which is really not true in many cases.

At my school, there is a guy that gets literally all A's. He's not a super genius though. Then you're probably thinking, "He probably takes a lot of tutoring lessons if he's not naturally smart." The answer is no, he doesn't have tutors of any sort. What makes him successful at school is the fact that he is hard working. If a school did not teach enough of what was necessary for students to succeed in school, then that'd be a pretty bad school.

In my perspective, greater numbers or hours with a tutor(s) does not equal better grades. If that were to be true, then every single pupil with wealthy family backgrounds would simply get good grades. Thinking about every single rich kid, I know most people would agree that they don't all get good grades. As the saying goes, "Work hard, work harder" can sometimes be the actual stimulus of all those "smart" kids.