Shadow Education in Asia and the Pacific: Features and Implications of Private Supplementary Tutoring

Abstract

Increasing amounts of structured teaching and learning take place outside formal school systems. Much of this teaching and learning takes the form of private supplementary tutoring which may be provided one-to-one, in small groups, in large classes, and/or over the internet. Such provision is commonly called shadow education because much of its content mimics that in schooling: as the curriculum changes in the schools, so it changes in the shadows. Shadow education has long been especially prominent in several rich countries of East Asia, notably Japan and South Korea. For overlapping but different reasons it has also been prominent in several lower-income countries in South and Southeast Asia such as India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. More recently shadow education has flourished in such countries as Kazakhstan and Myanmar, and indeed it is now visible throughout the region and beyond. This chapter presents data on the scale and nature of shadow education around Asia and the Pacific, noting commonalities and variations. The chapter includes information not only on the recipients but also on the providers of shadow education. Three main providers may be observed, namely entrepreneurs who operate tutorial centres of various kinds, teachers in mainstream schools who offer private tutoring on the side to supplement their incomes, and informal workers such as university students who desire some extra income. From this mapping of the scale and nature, the chapter turns to the implications. On educational side, tutoring does not always enhance learning – much depends on the motivations of both the tutors and the students as well as the formats, contents and durations of tutoring. Tutoring can also have a backwash on schooling. With a wider lens, tutoring tends to maintain and exacerbate social inequalities since rich families can secure more and better shadow education than their lower-income counterparts. Private tutoring also has an economic dimension, providing incomes for tutors and ancillary support services. Regulation of the sector has been generally neglected, but is now being taken more seriously in some countries.