Factors that Persuade the Junior Secondary Students to Attend Tuition Classes

Abstract

The quality of education is a factor that has a strong impact on the country's future. Not only the world's most developed countries, but also developing countries are highly concerned about their education sector. Sri Lanka is a developing South Asian country which is provided with free education from primary to university level according to its free education policy. Significantly, the literacy rate in Sri Lanka is 98.1% which is the highest among the South Asian countries. There is a huge competition in the field of education due to various factors such as population growth in Sri Lanka with the widening opportunities for higher education and the lack of accessibility to facilities. Private tuition classes are popular among junior secondary students who are facing competitive government examinations in their near future. This study examined the factors that make the junior secondary students to attend tuition classes, mainly under economic difficulties, social factors and educational factors. The survey was conducted using a sample of students who were selected randomly from Grade 6 and Grade 7 in a leading girls' school in Colombo, and their parents. In the sample, there are 32 students from Grade 6 and 41students from Grade 7. Structured questionnaires and personal interview methods were used to collect primary data. Most of the students attend private tuition classes for the main subjects like English, Science and Mathematics since they are comparatively difficult subjects. Especially the exam-oriented education system is influencing students to attend tuition. Therefore, the government education system should pay more attention on the above three subjects in order to familiarize the students with those curricula.
Keywords: junior secondary; free education; private tuition