CHAIRMAN of the Parliament's Social Services and Public Administration Joint Select Committee Dr Paul Richards believes it is wrong for teachers asking parents to pay for private lessons for their children, instead of teaching them all they need to know, for free, during school hours.
Independent Senator Richards was speaking during a virtual meeting between the JSC and education stakeholders on January 29.
Government senator Avinash Singh said the committee had received reports about curriculum overload in schools causing stress and burnout in students and contributing to their academic under-performance at the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) examination.
Singh asked if there was a correlation between curriculum overload in schools and teachers holding private lessons outside normal school hours.
"You hear all the time that students complain that teachers tell them, 'Well, if you don't get it in school, see me after.'"
Singh asked if there is a policy or "ethics at school for teachers to let their students come to them after hours of school to present the curriculum so these students can pass the exams."
National Council of Parent Teacher Associations (NPTA) president Walter Stewart said Energy Minister Stuart Young, who is tipped to succeed Dr Rowley as prime minister, recently spoke about the relevance of the curriculum to students.
"We can change the curriculum at all levels."
But he added if educators are not able to deal with and deliver the curriculum, "We can shift the curriculum several times and still not get the effect that we want to."
Singh said in some cases, these students are asked to pay for extra classes.
Stewart said the issue of curriculum overload on students was connected to teachers' lesson plans.
He asked, "Are the lesson plans properly executed?"
Stewart identified a teacher who able to use "an open-door system" to help his students understand mathematical angles.
While using the curriculum, Stewart continued, teachers have to use it in a way that makes the subject matter relevant to the students in front of them. He said this was important because different students have different learning styles.
Richards asked if the NPTA had done any studies of curriculum overload or has only made anecdotal observations that students are being overloaded.
Stewart said it was the latter.
"We would want to go into a deep dive to be able to show and to prove where the curriculum has been overloaded."
In response to Singh's question about teachers holding private lessons and asking to be paid for them, Stewart said, "I would want to use the word 'mafia' guardedly with regard to the extra classes that parents have to succumb to in order to assist their children with extra lessons or private lessons."
The NPTA, he said, sees no reason why teachers cannot adequately deliver the curriculum in the specified time allotted during regular school hours, and there needs to be some kind of understanding of the reason or reasons why teachers cannot do this.
"I must admit that
