Survey reveals

FINDINGS taken from an “Extra Lessons Survey” has revealed students found their lessons tutor were more helpful than regular teachers, while 60 percent of extra lessons took place at Government schools.

The survey was carried out by the Association for Improvement of Education group based in Preysal Village, Couva. It was carried out to get first hand information on the phenomenon of extra lessons, whether more girls than boys go for extra lessons and the types of schools the students taking lessons came from.

A questionnaire was administered over three-weeks in April to 454 students at extra lessons centres chosen randomly from across the country including Tobago, Port-of-Spain, Arima, Chauganas, Rio Claro.

According to the findings, 81 students said they need to improve their grades, 62 students said they needed extra lessons, 60 wanted to obtain scholarships, 51 had difficulty understanding their teachers, while 48 reported that not enough work was being done at school.

The second question on the survey sought to find out the subjects being pursued. Fifty -two percent said they were taking extra lessons in English while 48 percent said they were taking extra lessons in Mathematics. Ninety-eight percent of the students said their performance at school improved because of extra lessons. The extra lessons teacher was described as more helpful by 88 percent of those surveyed compared with 12 percent who favoured their regular teachers.

However, when questioned in which school the lessons teacher taught, 60 percent said Government, 37 percent said denominational and three percent said private. The survey found that more females (59 percent) were taking lessons and 41 percent were males. Most of the students were from denominational and private schools (67 percent) followed by government secondary (32 percent) and private schools (one percent).

The association also looked at finance since this was “an important ingredient in the whole extra lessons scenario”, eighty-one percent were employed and 19 percent unemployed.

The association concluded that since more girls attended extra lessons than boys this was “partly responsible” for them doing better in exams. The Association has called for the appointment of more school supervisors and curriculum officers to monitor what is happening in schools.

It said, “Teachers need further training to be better prepared to deliver their lessons. The quantum of work being done in the classroom has to increase. Increased monitoring is necessary.”

The association also recommended that an attempt be made to make homes more stable and independent assessors hired to monitor and rate schools according to predetermined criteria.

It said, “This will help raise the standards of schools.”

In an interview yesterday Jagdeo Maharaj, coordinator for the association said its goal is to do research and educate the public on their findings.