Private tuition is an extra class outside the regular curriculum or schooldays. It is not covered by school fees paid by parents to keep their children in classes. Private tuition is quite expensive, thus explaining why some parents cannot afford private education for their children. While some parents struggle to clear their children’s school fees, others pay about $5,000 for their children to be at the same level as other students in a class. Parents pay for private tuition for their kids because they want the best for them. They believe that tuition programmes render an intensive curriculum compared to schools.
Parents perceive that they must ensure their children succeed in life, particularly in the education sector. For instance, parents like Sujat Devi and Rajesh willingly send their two children to private tuition that they claim to be costly merely to boost their children's’ grades (Young, 2015). They are willing to cut down their normal expenses such as reducing the class of food restaurants they used to visit plus the number of vacations (from four to one) that they went in a year. Instead of visiting distant destinations, they now visit near places and go on staycations rather than vacations to save for their children’’ education (Young, 2015). In addition, Madam Sujat does her house chores to save money for her children’s tuition services. Such sacrifices explain how far parents are willing to go to enhance their kids’ performance.
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Parents lean on the fact that teachers in schools do not spend time on all students in the class to ensure an educational concept has sunk in them. For instance, Anushiyaa, a high school student from Cresent Girls School,-argues that she feels contented to have an educator around her, one who can clarify on some areas that her tutors did not concentrate on (Young, 2015). Moreover, just like Tamil, Sujat’s child-Anushiyaa-also claims that her grades have improved due to private tuition (Young, 2015). Such improvements motivate parents to sacrifice more of their income and minimize their spending to ascertain excellence in their children’s performance.
Parents believe that private tuition entails an intensive curriculum compared to traditional schooling. Traditional education focused more on the exam rendered to students thus making it weak (Sen, 2016). On the other hand, private tuition is considered a modern education system because it offers learners advance experiences. Students who attend modern tutoring are more familiar with global trends and can explain activities occurring in the news and their causes. In other words, the types of tuitions provide the society with two kinds of individuals in the labor sector-One who is experienced and knowledgeable while the other is only equipped with the theories in books (Sen, 2016). Among the two individuals, organizations will choose the knowledgeable candidate. As a result, this factor also contributes to the reasons parents sacrifice their expenditure to see through the success of their children.
Social capital is a network or group of individuals with shared values, norms, identity cooperation, trust, and understanding (Lin, 2017). A family is a better example of social capital (Lin, 2017). According to individualized theory, in the modern world, it is complicated to associate social capital with contemporary families. Notably, as children grow through their adolescent to youth and finally to the adult stage, social capital becomes an individualized concept because parents fail to maintain their role of socialization with their children. An excellent illustration is when parents go through a divorce; it is difficult to support the big spending on private tuition due to economic constraints.
Based on the functionalism theory, a family operates as one team. Every member is expected to be devoted to their role for the family’s excellence. For instance, parents spend many funds on private tuition to support their children’s educational excellence while their kids concentrate during their teachings because they are offered the best curriculum. It would be disappointing if parents spent much money on private tuition yet their children’s grades remained the same or depreciated. In other words, most parents feel obliged to meet this social need of their children as a sign of support to their families’ wellbeing, thus producing social capital.
Symbolic interactionism drives parents to big spending on tuition. Since a group of people forms social capital with common understanding, values, trust, beliefs, and norms; parents can quickly notice a problem in their children’s academic performance, thus explaining their big spending on tuition. They, therefore, seek teaching skills that will match their children’s understanding to ensure their excellence. Once children meet tutors who understand their learning style and concentration span, their grades improve drastically. In other words, students build trust in teachers who offer them understanding and their time. Nonetheless, it is the role of teachers to build that trust amid them and students to produce social capital.
Social structural factors include social class, norms, and urban-rural differences. Social class can influence a parent’s spending on private tuition to strengthen social capital. When parents spend massively on private education, they create opportunities for their children in the future in the employment industry (Gifford & Nilsson, 2014). The type of social class that a particular family falls in predicts the amount of money that parents can spend to improve their children’s performance. For instance, a middle-class family such as that of Madam Sujata has to cut down on their expenses to boost their child’s academic well-being. In other words, they struggle to make ends meet to produce and strengthen their social capital.
Another factor that influences the development of social capital is the norms. If parents believe that their children deserve private tuition because the traditional system is weak, then they create an opportunity structure for their children. In other words, no parent would want to watch their children fail. The urban-rural differences also determine the quality of education that students receive (Gifford & Nilsson, 2014). In rural areas, schools are rooted in traditional tuition thus explaining their poor performance compared to urban-based schools. Even though both parents in the rural and the urban regions emphasize on tuition, those in the metropolitan area place much emphasis thus boosting their social capital and opportunities for their kids.
In conclusion, parents spend much on private tuition to ensure the best for their kids. Parents deem tuition programmes to render an intensive curriculum compared to schools. Social capital, on the other hand, is a network or group of individuals with shared values, norms, identity cooperation, trust, and understanding. A family is an excellent example of a social network. The need to develop and maintain social capital motivate parents to cut down their expenses to ensure academic excellence for their children. Parents believe that teachers do not spend adequate time in school with their children to ensure their understanding. The sociological theories such as functionalism and symbolism explain why parents feel obliged to provide their children’s academic excellence. Thus, the social structural factors in families like social class, norms, and urban-rural differences influence the development of social capital.
References
Gifford, R., & Nilsson, A. (2014). Personal and social factors that influence pro-environmental concern and behaviour: A review. International Journal of Psychology , n/a-n/a. doi:10.1002/ijop.12034
Lin, N. (2017). Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital (pp. 3-28). Routledge.
Sen, N. G. (2016, October 9). Mum spends $2,000 per term on daughter's tuition. The New Paper [Singapore]. Retrieved from https://www.tnp.sg/news/singapore/mum-spends-2000-term-daughters-tuition
Young, C. (2015, July 4). Family cuts back spending for tuition. THE STRAITTIMES [Singapore]. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/family-cuts-back-spending-for-tuition
