English Private Tutoring among Armenian Secondary School Children

Abstract

Recent decades have brought a systematic trend of what has been called the shadow education system of supplementary private tutoring. All over the world pupils in regular public and private schools take supplementary paid classes after school or at weekends. Moreover, this phenomenon becomes conspicuous during the examination period, but for some pupils it emerges regardless the exams at all levels of the educational system. Although supplementary tutoring is considered to be a huge industry in many places in the world with promising perspectives in social and educational implications, educational researchers have not investigated this topic sufficiently. To date, little research has been done in Armenia which investigates the overall picture of English language private tutoring in Armenian context. This paper focuses on the reasons and needs for private supplementary tutoring in Yerevan, Armenia. More than 411 students completed a questionnaire survey and over 30 students, parents and teachers were interviewed to discover the perspectives of each. The results show that English language tutoring is in demand because students tend to prefer English over other lessons and because they have to prepare for entrance exams.