Private tuition is considered to be one of the conventional ways preferred by university students to earn a little extra money to bear their own expenses and reduce the burden on parents.
This extra money is also the only source of income for many people. Sometimes, even fresh graduates who are struggling to get a job, resort to private tuitions finding no other alternative.
The ongoing lockdown and the year-long pandemic have been difficult for those whose livelihoods depended on tuitions. Many of them were dismissed by the parents during the first wave of coronavirus attack and had to face great difficulties to make both ends meet.
Some had to start providing tuitions online, adapting to the new normal, while some had to switch to menial jobs as they could not even afford the necessary gadgets needed to teach their students online.
Seeking anonymity, a student of North South University said that she tutored six students before the virus hit the country. She comes from a middle-class family that could not afford to pay her tuition fees.
She has been bearing her educational expenses with these tuitions since her admission. “I was in a miserable condition after losing all of them last year; I could barely pay my house rent. I started providing tuitions online like everyone else, in line with the schools. After facing much hardship, I was able to get back on my feet,” she added.
A significant number of people’s livelihoods depend in this informal sector. Many students who contributed to their family's expenses had to take online delivery job or some other works to stay afloat.
Some of the victims said that due to many issues including connectivity problems and other technical glitches they have to put more effort while teaching virtually. Besides, slow learners struggle with this online teaching system. Therefore, the teacher has to go all out and invest more time to ensure learning. But they are getting paid less than earlier as many parents think that online tuitions are not much helpful.
Salsabil Hayat Anannya, a student of Jahangirnagar University started teaching daughter of a Libyan diplomat in December who is not that tech-savvy. Due to the lockdown, Anannya has been facing trouble teaching online as she started tutoring the student in the first place so that she could assist her in attending her school classes via zoom as the student herself was unable to do so.
“Teaching English to a kid who can barely communicate is a challenge in itself and online teaching adds to these difficulties. Poor internet connection often hampers the classes. If things don't go back to normal soon, I might have to stop teaching and lose my only source of income,” she said.
Toufiq Islam, a student of Daffodil International University had to stop tutoring his student when the coronavirus broke out last year. “I could not find any other student for a long time as people were in a state of panic back then. But I was lucky to find tuition next door after a few months.”
Although the concept of online education made things complicated for a lot of people, it had a silver lining for some.
Tauhidur Rahman Afridi, a student of Brac University shared his experience on how he availed himself of the lockdown.
“Due to the lockdown everything was online so it actually gave me more time to look into opportunities. Parents preferred to keep the classes going so I picked up a few online tuitions which was easier for me to execute practically because there was no travel time or cost involved. Took a little while to adjust but now I could take up twice the number of tuitions because of the convenience,” he said.
Private tutors are coping with the challenges brought by the pandemic to survive, despite its current bleak prospect.