Super tutor is here

The uniquely Asian phenomenon of the rock star teacher

HE’S YOUNG. He's handsome. His face is on billboards and buses all over town. He earns a fortune. Teenagers worship him. He is . . . a math teacher.

Anyone who thinks there are hardly any differences left between East and West should check out the education scene.

In the nightmare school I barely survived in the UK, teachers were paid in table scraps and got chairs thrown at them. Now I live in Asia, where teachers are superstars who live in luxury and bathe in asses' milk.

The phenomenon of the rock star teacher started in China in the 1990s with a man who added two things to his after-school cramming class that had never been seen before in Asian education:

1) fun and

2) a money-back guarantee.

He was soon standing on stage in front of massive audiences of cheering youngsters doing English conversation classes.

TEACHER: “Let us speak English, the language of Shakespeare and his even more famous descendent Britney Spears.”

HUGE AUDIENCE: “Yes we will!”

TEACHER: “Let us willingly pay huge fees for this honor.”

HUGE AUDIENCE: “Yes we will!”

TEACHER: You will never forget what I teach you, will you?”

HUGE AUDIENCE: “Yes we will!”
*

The phenomenon spread around Asia, and now many cities have superstar teachers offering classes from science to math. But in some places, particularly in South Asia and Indo-China, parents still help children get exam passes with traditional methods, such as bribery, corruption or just turning up at school with a big stick. These methods don't work at my kids' schools, unfortunately.

Yet I was reluctant to send them to a new-style cramming school. Did I really want to finance a new swimming pool for a brattish rock star tutor who already earns more than I do?

So instead, I gave the kids a lengthy lecture about how if they worked hard at their studies they would eventually be rewarded with a job and an income.

“In ten years, you will have your OWN money and buy whatever you like, whenever you like.”

They considered this. “Can you give us the cash in advance, Dad?” If there were exams in “answering back”, my son would get an “A star” grade.

In the end, my wife found an after-school tutoring centre which seemed efficient, well-run and honest, and signed up the children for top-up classes. They went reluctantly the first week, uncomplainingly the second week and enthusiastically the third week. “Can I do MORE subjects next term?” one child asked me. “Can I go every day after school?”

Huh? Was she really asking for extra homework? This was suspicious. I decided this needed investigating.

At the after-school tutorial centre, I found a toy shop—but none of the things in it could be bought for cash. They could only be bought with tutorial points. Put in long hours of study, and you can buy real stuff at the end of each session. Some of the gear in the shop was really cool, and the “instant gratification” way of getting it for a few sessions of study was irresistible.

I'm signing up for classes myself next term. I’ve decided I need to practice speaking English, the language of Shakespeare and his even more famous descendent Britney Spears.

 

Technorati Tags: tutor,super tutor,after school,cramming,hong kong

Comments

[Mike]

A tutor that earns more than a hip asian dressed writer who visits schools with 1000 of kids cheering, who is Hong Kong number one best selling english writing author, Nury Vittachi, aka Mr Jam,aka Master Vee. say it isn't so.....sorry with all your hype from your publishers I couldn't resist laughing at you talking about hype. I do enjoy your talents and I recommend all your books to the local library:)

[Christopher]

The phenomena of ‘super tutors’ and centers.

I myself am a teacher & lecturer whom tutor. In fact I decided to return to full time tutoring. Perhaps not the smartest financial move I have ever made, but I have met a few of the self styled super tutors and wish to share my comments.

The most striking discovery is that most of the well known names are in fact they don’t know the subjects which they teach. Now I shall not name any names here but I shall share one very amusing example.

I was asked to guest lecture / tutor for a particular super tutor at one of the most advertised centers. I dully turned up early to check the classroom. At this point I was handed a copy of the lesson materials. I should point out as an educational author and editor over a period of twenty years I have seen some interesting attempts at materials, but this time I was in awe! I explained they had given me the wrong materials, “No, those are correct, the right ones.” I was told. I politely explained that it was impossible. “The TOIEC is a test of listening and reading only. These materials for a 3 hours lesson have 20 questions, 10 samples and 10 practice, about 6 mins worth and the rest of the materials 2 hours 50 mins worth have no relation to the exam and are shall we say inappropriate? I went on to explain that those nice students they refer to as customers had not only paid for the course which was advertised as a god forsaken TOEIC course, but were taking time out to attend the class and traveling to get there. This seemed to confuse their staff. I was then asked to review the materials for a following days ILETS lesson. I politely pointed out those also had little relevance to the IELTS. I taught the agreed one lesson of the TOIEC supplementing it with my own materials and politely refused to have any further dealings with them.

Since then I have been approached by a number of the new super tutor cram schools, I cant speak for all as I haven’t seen them all nor their materials, but I would strongly advise to view their materials and investigate their teachers actual subject teaching qualifications prior to handing over any fees.

Christopher Rose

[Dancer]

Of course these people are worthy of suspicion, especially if you're a parent. A friend of mine recently ended up on the side of a bus, joining the the status of a super tutor. He told me that when he joined the company, he had to demonstrate how he has enough 'star' quality to draw in the customers. If you can't dazzle the kids, then at least you have to dazzle the mums who are forking out the cash.

As for accumulating study points to claim prizes, another tutor friend of mine is doing just that. She also allows 15 min play time on an NDS / Playstation or the like as a reward if a kid has done well in a test.

[farah]

we kind of have an entirely different case over here. the teachers in the school 'encourage' his/her students to go for after school tutoring or private tuition at their places. so apparently these teachers dont give any productive effort at school since the students will be going over for tuition where the payment will directly go in their pockets.
but if some student prefer another teacher over him/her then they personally make sure to make the lives of those student hell by insulting their learning techniques or failing them.
i guess i didnt mention going for private tuitons can cost a fortune. beside they tutor 3 days a week, 1 - 1.5 hrs per class where they spend 90% of the time talking crap.

[fardel]

Maybe I should consider starting a new life.
Does it pay well?

[Jigishu Ahmed]

Farah don't forget to mention in quality private tuition in Bangladesh the pupils are squashed together in tiny dungeon.

[Julie]

Nury, what are you going to buy with your tutorial points?

[Julie]

On a more serious note, this phenomenon seems to indicate a lack of faith in the educational system. I am wondering whether tutoring is as common in places where there are a lot of non-government schools? Ie whether it is somehow related to the idea of paying for a good education?

I came across an interesting book last year called The Little Black Schoolbook: a guide to getting straight As at school and university by Mark Lopez. The author runs a tutoring business.
The book points out that there is a degree of subjectivity in the marking of assessment in the humanities and advocates studying the teacher to find his/ her prejudices.
I found it interesting, but slightly depressing reading.

[TS]

We had rock star teachers in Denmark all the way back in the seventies.
Back then they were known as substitute teachers.
They would be roused from their smoking of everything that wasn't nailed down to replace a sick teacher for a few lessons.
They would have no clue as to where the class would be in their curriculum and they knew that they would have to rely on some sort of schtick to keep us children becoming unruly by taking advantage of their soft hippie ways.
Mostly it would be a book of short stories they would read loud from, quite often they would show with a guitar and on one memorable occasion, bongo drums.
One sticks out however he would not bring anything at all, he would tell up stories that he made up on the spot. We would be absolutely captivated by his stories with plots taking place around the world in exotic locations. If we had him for more than one lesson, he would end with a cliffhanger that would have us talking all through the break.

Many years later our local cinema had a James Bond cavalcade and as I was watching the movies, I had the peculiar feeling that I had seen them before.
I finally realised the our beloved substitute had lifted the plots from James Bond films and cleaned out the sex and the killings and told them to us.
He did have a gift as story teller though, quite often his version was a lot better than the films.

[Momo]

If the education system here in HK is really that bad to want to spend a fortune on overly hyped private tuition. Shouldn't people file a complaint of some sort to the local government? Or better yet, just drop their kids out of their respective school and just pay full time tuition.

Dunno about you Nury but some of the ads posted in my local mtr station have some of the ugl- erm.. least handsome people plastered all over as self-styled 'Super Tutors'.

Oh and thanks Christopher for giving us an insider's look into this strange phenom on tutoring. Nice to know the money paid by parents is being well spent...

[Momo]

I've been wondering about this for some time. Am I so glad you wrote about it Nury.

Question - has anyone ever heard of these super-tutors? I mean excluding all the silly posters and various ads, I certainly have never heard of their names/reputation before then. Excuse my ignorance if I'm wrong.

[Dancer]

It's not really about whether or not the system in HK is crap or not. Like everything else, getting a super tutor is a fad.

Let's not forget those video lessons, where the tutor teaches a group of students in the first room with a video camera on. The images and sound will be shown immediately in the second and third classrooms onwards. $300 or so per student per hour. 40 students per room. You do the maths.

[Christy]

Do you guys know that some tutorial centers "buy" grade As?

After the public exam results are released every year, the centers scramble to roll out ads boasting of their students' great results. Sometimes the results are, er, not so great. So they buy them instead. Students who aced a certain subject but never went to any tutorial classes can give the centers the right to use their names (and grades) in ads in return for money. This can be as little as $200 (for CE) and can go as high as $1000 (for AL).

Another common "tactic" is taking credit for the student's own hard work -- for example, I enrolled in a Economics tutorial class and got an A in that subject. My overall AL results were 4As and 1B -- so what the tutorial center would do is run an ad along the lines of "4As student chooses XX Education!", which gives the impression that the student had tutorial classes for all 4 subjects.

[henry]

there is something i have to correct u , as a hong konger, our superstar tutor history was not relavent with the mainland china one. these 2 trend developed on its own background. the hong kong super tutor trend had been growing for decades since and reach its first peak around 90's. and yes hong kong follows a highly exam result oriendted system, your life depands on your exam result!!
so exam paper prediction skill plus money back, both together made this super rock star tutor becomes idol of the teens, everyone want to pay less effort for higher result.

these "teacher" are totally difference from the high school one, they dont concern anything, but only the exam score. they teach examination technic, and with high accuracy examination tips, they together developed a very sophisticated examination topic prediction methodology.

Predicting future exam question is not impossible, since the examination authority got some kind of pattern on it, like the wont repeat certain range which has been asked last years, or a circular pattern on choosing question etc.
and some of these tutor got some experience on the board of examination authority or those commiittee, (so they claimed).

School teacher also teach examination technic but not that level of those tutor do. like how to pick up the most valuable question and answer in just right amount of point which more time for your next question, etc. Also like how to catch the most valuable note point on the text book as question prediction ,etc.

talking about "just right amount of point" that is related to a score marking system called "marking scheme", if u collect enough amount of data (huge!!), u can catch the pattern see how the authority mark the score. Hence they collect a large amount of database like the mock exam from band 1 best school's mock paper, those band one high school always got some connection with some degree with the exam authority.... so u see, those super tutor dont just teach things, they aim for examination strategy development in fact.

They should be called HKCEE/HK A-Level examination strategic analyst, not really a TEACHER.

sorry for my bad english, i m a failure product of hong kong education system, and i didnt attend those super rock star lesson....

I think hong kong's super tutor star was some kind of twist from japan's super tutoring center instead of influrence from China Mainland instead.

[Vince A]

This is the beginning of the end of Asian supremacy in school.

Once you make learning 'fun', students begin demanding entertainment and amusement from their teachers.

Real teachers begin to shun their vocation and get replaced by clowns.

Foundations give way to 'relevance' and 'attention-grabbing'.

Chronic ADHD takes root and become endemic.

Play should be fun. Learning should be hard, challenging, and character-forming.

[fardel]

Vince
I disagree with you.
One learns faster when it is easy and fun,(like learning a language with a girlfriend: boyfriend rather than in a monastery).
The same applies to other subjects, any subject ;
the best teacher is the one with the ability to convey the concept he is teaching to his audience, 100 % of his audience.!

[Angela]

Hey Fardel, would you be interested to learn an Asian language? ;-)

[Foxlore]

I think many people are getting wise to the local 'star' tutors game, but this is such a competative (and vain) society in many ways, that the ads still draw people in. We live in a society that worships 'the image' and lets the results fall in line.

In regular 'academia' it was typically the older more venerable professors / lectures and their experience that is valued...today it's the young hipster with a facebook page and fancy cars (which you help pay for).

I remember seeing a similar trend with the ESPRIT hair salon chain, trying to sell stylists in this same manner.

But it is a shame that this passes for 'education' today.

Local film 'Trick or Cheat' poked fun at this and is now under fire from a star tutor. For those interested, the SCMP article can be found here if you have a subscription...

http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2c913216495213d5df646910cba0a0a0/?vgnextoid=6de80d15d9854210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&vgnextfmt=teaser&ss=Hong+Kong&s=idx_News

[fardel]

I knew I would be able to learn Mandarin in two days.

[sej]

I'm with Henry above, the only thing these schools teach you, is how to pass a specific exam. They do not teach the really important things, such as critical thinking, also known as thinking for oneself.

Vince, I also must disagree with you. It's so much easier to learn things when you enjoy what you are learning. Conversely, it's much easier to teach when you really enjoy your subject. When learning or teaching is a chore, your mind is usually anywhere else but on the work.

Christy, I know of a girl who achieved pretty good results in her HSC, like you where she effectively got something like 4A's and a B (although we don't use A's and B's here...). The subject the took tutoring in was the "B" subject, but the school still used the fact she got 4 A's across the others as validation of their school and its methods, and a reason why you should use their school for your child, which I think is just plain wrong. BTW, I can tutor you in animal husbandry if you're interested?

[Leo]

Nury, if your wife is reading this, I think she will agree with some of the points I'm listing below:

1. The superstar teachers in those education centres are not traditional teachers and some of those don't even have teaching trainings like we do. A teacher needs to take care of BOTH DISCIPLINE and ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE of the students during lessons. But superstar teachers like those, they only need to focus on ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE.

2. Other than the basic issues I mentioned in 1, teachers in schools are responsible for: BABY-SITTING, ADMINISTRATIVE WORK, MORAL EDUATION, LIFE EDUCATION, TEACHING THEM MAKING RIGHTEOUS JUDGEMENT, GIVING THEM TIME TO PRACTICE LANGUAGE (SPEAKING), etc. and the students get to study in your school (normally) for free.

However, as the rock star teachers in those education centres, you are free to let them roam around the room as they PAID to attend your lessons, and they are responsible in learning.

3. We, teachers, are paid to follow the order of EDB and making sure that our students are ready and are suitable to work in our SOCIETY. On the other hand, the rock star teachers in education centres are paid not to follow orders from EDB but from the SOCIETY and to make sure that the students are prepared for the EXAMINATION.

If you are asking why there isn't anyone seeing the problems, sadly, yes, many of us have noticed these problems for a long time, and I can gurantee you that the total discussion time my lecturer has spent on discussing this issue would be longer than any given time for any written examinations in Hong Kong. Many of us (especially those who are studying BEd) should have known this.

There is no doubt that many of us understand why students choose education centres over schools as teachers in schools are overwhelmed by unlimited amount of stupid, ridiculous and unreasonable work which they shouldn't be focusing on or unsettle businesses that they weren't supposed to handle. Some teachers are underpaid as they are doing lots more administrative work and markings than the teaching.

I take my time to deal with my students (all the free time I can have in school hours) and now I get only 3 or less hours to sleep everyday with a BRAIN-CRACKING HEADACHE everyday and a bleeding nose for 3 weeks in the end (at this moment, my nose has been bleeding for 3 weeks...everyday, it bleeds; and a headache that is quite killing me for 6 days; to top it all, I got a toothache that makes sure I'm not able to chew well...)

Yes, if Hong Kong education system is a failure, quite a lot of people would have to put 2 thumbs up and a smile on their face saying "Good Job".

Frankly, teacher is a "GOOD JOB" in term of salary, but what you will get from your students (completely ignoring you and disobeying you), tons of "over"loads, the unlimited amount of markings, help with publications, to-infinite meetings, zero-satisfaction from the academic performance of your students, zero-or-negative satisfaction for their behaviour, etc., yes, "being a teacher is the BEST JOB to ensure you go suicide 100%" (I quoted this from a mental health specialist who teaches Mental Health First Aid).

Yes, if you do know the statistics, dentists and teachers are the top of the list for SUICIDEs (from the same mental health specialist)...

Here's the one piece of advice for all university students and all those who are taking up teacher training (from the same mental health specialist):

It's better for you to take a step down and look carefully at what lies ahead. You DON'T have to be a teacher. According to the number of suicide cases in Hong Kong, BEING A TEACHER is the SECOND MOST TERRIBLE JOB to be. Out of 10 teachers, 4-5 of them died because of suicide. DON'T BE A TEACHER, or else you won't live longer than 60...

Seriously, I ain't regret for taking up this job...but I definitely will not recommend you to be one unless you have made up your mind to look ahead, and neglect the worst you'll be facing.

[Bernard]

Can't help but feel that this superstar tutor phenomenon nowadays is such an insult to all the teachers who put in so much effort in the schools!

What's going on? Shouldn't Hong Kong's school education be enough for any kid? The world's going maaaaaaad...

[Karuna]

Refer earlier posting by Henry
""some of these tutor got some experience on the board of examination authority or those committee""

If this is true, it seems unethical since there is a conflict of interest and even corruption. Would be good if Education department or ICAC looks into this.

Nury..could be a topic for your next coloumn

[Mahjuja]

Great, after several failed attempts, over two hours, of trying to post a comment here, I post a comment on the wrong page, and then the comment box finally works. Could this have anything to do with my reading the 'Help, it's an aphorism attack' column just before this one?

[stef]

The book points out that there is a degree of subjectivity in the marking of assessment in the humanities
---
of course there is, because the subject itself is very subjective.

i myself am a language teacher in a tutorial type school. i recently finished a teacher training course wherein they told us to concentrate on the listening and speaking part inside the classroom while enhance the students' reading and writing skills through homework.

of course, there has to be FUN in the lesson as well. I try not to "lecture". instead, i make the lesson interactive by constantly getting the students to guess the meaning of a sentence pattern before i explain it. :)

in our country, tutoring is getting very expensive and usually done by school teachers themselves after hours. due to personal experience, i can attest that all they do is make your child memorize stuff and then test them on it. any patient parent can do it by themselves and save the cost. unfortunately, we don't have superstar tutors. i imagine they might get into an intimate relationship with some of their students ;D

[Christy]

Sej, I'm not enrolliing in your animal husbandry tutorial classes unless:

a) You promise to refund if I don't get an A
b) You get an image makeover and run huge ads everywhere
c) You refund if I do get an A.

[sej]

Christy,

I'm willing to tutor you gratis, so a) and c) are automatically taken care of. As for b), hmmm... that's tough. How do you make a perfect image better?

(Put it together with a second perfect image of course!)
Huge ads huh? I'll see what I can do! What about lots and lots of small ones?

[Christy]

Hahaha I love that monkey!!!

[fardel]

I love your neighborhood ,but.....
Where is the Sun?

[sej]

Christy, Just for you, another pose!

Fardel, Yeah, it was a pretty wet and overcast day that one - a couple of years ago now. Haven't had much rain since though.

[Vince A]

Just saw a CNN video report on HK super tutors:

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/11/08/coren.hk.celebrity.tutors.cnn

Australians might recognise the reporter (Anna Coren)

[Nursing top]

you do have humorous posts! my stoping won't stop aching now! haha...

YES WE WILL!

[Syed]

Hellow everyone.

[Jose]

I even heard that there are private tutorial classes for univeristy students. As a high sch student myself who doesnt go to any tutorial classes, I find this ridiculous that a uni student still needs to go for tutorial lessons...

So will there be tutorial classes for adults who are working?? LOL