Unlike in Europe and other western countries, after-school tuition is a daily standard for Burmese school children, regardless if they are the worst of their class or on top of it. It’s a vital part of their education, and without it most of the students cannot keep up with their lessons anymore. Unfortunately, it’s also not cheap, which makes it difficult for those with money problems. One might not believe it, but until some years ago it was quite common that teachers taught badly in school on purpose, just to offer tuition classes in the afternoon for extra income. Although the system has been changed and adapted a bit, a lot of children still struggle – the poorest, unfairly, bearing the brunt.
Tution Class in DCC2
At SSO our main goal has always been to try and integrate as many people as possible into formal school. Helping to issue birth certificates, educating the children in our day-care-centres and providing school equipment are only some steps in the process, but we’ve realised that we also want to guarantee our kids a successful future. Such being the case we started a tuition class project in July 2017, offering our former DCC children (who now attend public school) free tutoring for two hours a day. 20 children in each centre have their own teacher, who closely works together with them and is flexible to adjust to their needs. So far, all our children are doing great in school and we are happy to see the project going so well!
Our tution-teacher from DCC3 preparing for her class.