Tutors take new course on open day

MUMBAI: In what could perhaps be described as an extreme form of outsourcing, educationists in the city report that several parents send across their wards' tutors on open house days at school. Traditionally, parents have been rarely allowed to miss these sessions where teachers update them about their children's progress in class.
A tutor from the suburbs said, "Sometimes, parents force tutors to pose as relatives.They check on children's answer papers as well as how they are doing in class.''
Arundhati Chavan, president at the Parent-Teachers' Association United Forum, adds, "This practice started gaining ground about five years ago when the tuition craze began. Sometimes, they may pretend to be aunts and the child has to keep quiet about it. Their parents don't find anything wrong in it.''
While most educationists TOI spoke to said they discouraged tutors from their institutes, a school principal reasoned, "What's wrong in that?'' She added that several parents of students of her school are not educated and may not follow what is being said at the open house. "The parents bring the child's tutors along. I have no issues with it.''
Chavan agrees there are instances where the children could be first-time learners in their family or their parents may have language issues. "If the child does not get good marks, parents are likely to blame tutors.''
Although the phenomenon may have a lot to do with mushrooming of coaching classes, most schools are doing their bit to curtail the practice. Some have introduced ID cards for parents not just for security reasons, but also to ward off proxy parents. Some send out circulars categorically mentioning that tutors are not allowed, said Chavan.
Father Gregory Lobo, secretary of the Archdiocesan Board of Education, which runs convent schools in and around the city, said while they have not gone so far as to issue ID cards to parents, "we don't entertain tutors''. If tutors are caught, parents are called for counselling. To avoid such unpleasantness, many schools hold the sessions in smaller batches. N Subramanian, principal of Balmohan Vidya Mandir, said, "We call parents in batches of 10 at a time.''