Parents at the mercy of private schools

Such mushroom schools have no proper classrooms, playgrounds and many other requirements for schools.Granted that private schools are helping government in a way since government schools alone cannot accommodate the children, but the way some go about establishing private schools is worrisome.Before the FCTA, some states every now and then come down on them, in […]

Such mushroom schools have no proper classrooms, playgrounds and many other requirements for schools.
Granted that private schools are helping government in a way since government schools alone cannot accommodate the children, but the way some go about establishing private schools is worrisome.
Before the FCTA, some states every now and then come down on them, in order to regulate standard, but still you will always find defaulters.
In any case, this is not actually about mushroom schools, but how private schools are left to keep exploiting parents by making extra lesson mandatory and for making it also mandatory for a child to spend many years in ‘school’ before actually going to Primary One.
In some schools instead of a three-year old child to be taken to Nursery 1, they would take him to ‘kindergarten’ class first, or so-called Play Group  before he goes to Nursery 1, Nursery 2, then to pre-primary class, or Reception, before going to Primary 1.
And I wonder why all these years must be spent in school before going to Primary 1 if not for extortion. After all, going to Nursery School does not guarantee that a child would be brilliant later, or even more brilliant than those that have never attended a Nursery School.
There are two cases of children that have not attended Nursery School but went straight to Pre-Primary class for a year and did better than ‘experienced’ Nursery School kids in the class , and they went ahead to become best students later in primary and secondary schools  and even university.
So what is the big deal  making it seem that if a child doesn’t go to Nursery School and spend countless years, learning what God knows what, your child would be become a dullard?
Then, the extra lesson that has become a necessary evil if you want your child to pass exams. Unlike before where it was the parents that would engage a lesson teacher for their child if they feel he needs more couching to catch up, now it is the schools that make it compulsory for pupils/students to have extra lesson.
After you pay the school fees for the term, you are also expected to pay the fees for the extra lesson for the term. Why wouldn’t they combine all the fees together as school fees, one may wonder, since it has become compulsory, not an option.
The extra lesson saga is an indictment on schools. In other words they are saying they don’t teach well, that their pupils/students need extra lesson to learn what they have taught!
From my understanding, most of the time in extra-lesson is actually spent doing homework. The children are not left alone to do their homework; the lesson teachers more or less do it for them in the name of helping them.
And sometimes, those that attend extra lesson get taught what is to come out of exams a day before the exams in a kind of exam malpractice.
Quite a number of parents have realised the futility of  this  extra lesson classes but only enrolled their children so that they wouldn’t be  sidelined.
But the greatest abuse of extra lesson is when Nursery School children as young as three are also told to take part in extra lesson.
These small children need freedom to play, not to be put in classroom for hours and hours, much less increased hours for extra lesson.
Even though some governments are taking measures to see that private schools conform to regulations, more needs to be done to tackle many exploitations and abuses.