Tuition can spur students to better grades

After reading the letter “Tuition reinforces idea that learning should be for the sake of examinations” (July 9), I could not help but wonder why we do not dispense with examinations and grades if they are undesirable.

But can, or should, we when their purpose is to evaluate how successful the learning process has been?

Whatever learning process a school may adopt, it needs a marker for teachers to evaluate their teaching and their pupils, for learning centres to choose applicants and for employers to select potential employees.

Grades are but one of the indicators of a person’s worth.

To say, however, that education is not only for grades is like saying eating is not only for acquiring nutrients. True, there is much to enjoy about dining — the tastes, the company, the experience — but ultimately the body needs nutrients.

When a person uses all available means such as tuition to get a good grade in English, for example, he seems to be struggling for a score or grade. Perhaps so in his mind, but he improves his English in the process.

That is the ultimate purpose. Just as when one works hard for a pay packet, one is not only struggling to get a certain salary figure but rather an assurance that one has a resource on which to live.

Not all pupils need tuition, but many need personal tuition. Doctors in clinics suffice for most patients, but many patients need specialists.

However good and dedicated a teacher may be, it is impossible to pay so much personal attention to every pupil in his or her classes. He or she would be overwhelmed.

Some pupils do not need tuition to pass, but they want to pass with better grades, so they resort to tuition. This may sound ambitious, but is ambition wrong? Is it wrong to work harder so that one may drive a better car, eat better food or wear more expensive clothing? Let us help those who cannot climb, but do not hinder those who can climb higher.

Tuition does not reinforce the idea that learning should be for the sake of examinations.

Tuition enriches the learning resources for those who want better examination results and hence a better life.