A tutoring center is a special learning place that is considered a non-formal school. They are typically used to train students to strengthen specific subjects, such as English and Mathematics, in preparation for certain examinations. Some tutoring centers are designed for students retaking university entrance exams, offering a full year of courses to help students prepare for the next year's exams, where students may spend 18 hours (1 day) in the tutoring center to study and prepare for the retake.
Academically, tutoring is also known as shadow education. According to Bray, M. (1999), extracurricular tutoring only exists when mainstream education exists, and its scale and form vary with changes in mainstream education. It receives less attention than mainstream education in almost all societies, and its appearance is far less clear than that of mainstream education. In mainstream school curricula, subjects that most increase opportunities for further education and employment, such as language, mathematics, and science, are also the most popular courses in tutoring.
Tutoring centers are usually private and are very popular in some East Asian regions, such as Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, South Korea, and Singapore, influenced by Confucian thought and historical private schools, imperial examinations, and the eight-legged essay system; in fact, in these places, tutoring centers almost constitute an education system, with many students attending tutoring centers after school. For example, in South Korea, household tutoring expenditures as a percentage of GDP increased from 1.2% in 1990 to 1.8% in 1994, and up to 2.9% in 1998.
Generally, countries and regions only regulate tutoring centers and rarely intervene in private tutoring (i.e., tutoring by a tutor). However, in South Korea, all private tutors must register with local education and tax authorities, or they can face one year in prison and fines. On February 19, 2008, the South Korean National Assembly's Education Committee passed a bill raising the fine for illegal education from 1 million won to 5 million won (approximately NT$128,000).
In Taiwan, public school teachers are prohibited from working part-time outside of school; however, in reality, some teachers still run tutoring sessions or work part-time at large tutoring centers. If such phenomena are reported and verified, the education bureau will send personnel to catch the violating teachers, who will be barred from teaching in schools. This phenomenon has been described in the works of writer Kuo Ling, as well as in the novel "Dangerous Minds" by writer Hou Wenyong.
Most junior high school students take tutoring to prepare for basic academic assessments, high school students for university entrance exams and specified subject tests, and university students to prepare for graduate school admission. In 2005, due to the Ministry of Education's intention to revert to a system of transitioning from elementary to junior high schools with intelligence testing, parents and students panicked, leading to a record high in teachers offering tutoring outside of school. In the book "Dangerous Minds," it is mentioned that junior high school student Hsieh Cheng-chieh was dissatisfied with Taiwan's entrance examination system and raised objections to the educational methods of tutor Teacher Chan, leading to a series of crises when the teacher's tutoring activities outside of school were exposed.
In addition to the prevalence of tutoring centers for junior high to high school and high school to university transitions, Taiwan also sees the emergence of tutoring centers for standardized tests (high vocational to university), graduate schools (master’s and doctoral programs), civil service exams (national exams), professional licenses, TOEFL, GRE (study abroad and language proficiency tests), and more on the streets of Taiwan. By July 5, 2013, there were a total of 18,940 tutoring centers.
Tutoring centers in Taiwan have only two legal advertising methods:
In Taiwan, junior high schools, in order to increase their graduation rates, often have principals and academic affairs directors illegally conduct enhancement classes. In some private schools, they will also offer specialized classes.
Many students enter tutoring centers because they cannot keep up with the pace or want to get ahead of school. The mainstream tutoring centers for high school to university transitions often have classes with hundreds of students, advertised by well-known tutoring instructors. However, there are also a few small tutoring centers that promote small class sizes. Each class lasts about 2 to 4 hours, usually starting after school during weekdays. Additionally, during holidays, tutoring centers also offer short-term courses on content that is generally not taught in textbooks (such as past curriculums and knowledge required for senior year university entrance exams).
Since 2006, some operators have transformed physical tutoring centers into online (mobile) tutoring, allowing students to watch tutoring courses online, promoting mobile learning, which has been widely accepted by the public as of 2012. Various courses are provided online, including high school entrance examinations, university transfers, graduate schools (master's programs for working professionals), civil service exams (national exams), licenses, TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication), and more.
Hong Kong has many tutoring centers that provide teaching and practice outside of regular classroom learning. These tutoring centers are mainly designed to prepare for public exams, which are regarded as "make-or-break" tests, such as the Hong Kong Certificate of Education Examination, Hong Kong Advanced Level Examination, and the newly introduced Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education. The courses are primarily taught in an exam-oriented manner, providing examination answering techniques and revisiting content not taught in school, filling in the gaps of school education, while also providing past exam papers for students to practice. Some tutoring instructors even predict the questions for public exams (commonly known as "tips"), allowing students to focus their revision on key topics. If they successfully predict questions, they will heavily promote their ability to provide tips. These tutoring courses are quite popular among secondary school students. Many well-known tutoring instructors spend large sums of money on advertisements, such as bus body ads and building exterior wall banners, while boasting about the number of students who achieved the highest grades in public exams.
According to statistics from the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, in the 2004/05 school year, over 30% of primary to high school students had received tutoring, and nearly 50% in pre-university programs. Students who receive tutoring spend an average of over HK$800. According to a survey by the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups in 2009, the overall ratio of secondary and primary school students receiving tutoring increased to 50%.
In 2011, one large tutoring center, Modern Education, even had the capacity to go public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
In Mainland China, public school teachers, as long as they have teaching experience and a certain number of years of service, usually have experience setting up tutoring centers outside of school for extra income. Due to the intense pressure on Chinese middle school students regarding their further education (junior high students must take the unified admission exam for regular senior high schools, while senior high students must take the unified admission exam for regular universities), most middle school students and their parents are willing to find experienced teachers for tutoring after school. As a result, the phenomenon of weekend or holiday tutoring is very common in Mainland China.
Both public and private schools in China frequently open tutoring centers for their students, typically during weekends or national holidays, aiming to increase the school's enrollment rate. Many schools incorporate tutoring into their daily teaching (meaning that not attending tutoring could be considered skipping class), thereby managing the teaching schedule. This leads to a situation where even if tutoring classes are "voluntary," students who do not attend will be seriously lagging behind or missing out on the teaching progress. This is not permissible under relevant laws. Some schools have even adopted the method of establishing shell companies (where the founders usually call them amateur schools) to turn the entire school into a private enterprise, thus circumventing inspections by relevant authorities. The lack of a reporting system for educational complaints has also contributed to the prevalence of illegal tutoring centers. There have been students who described the awkwardness of reporting tutoring to the Shanghai Education Department: "I called to report in the morning, but they hadn't started work yet. I called at noon and they were having lunch. I called after school and they had already left work. Emailing a report was like throwing a stone into the ocean." However, the situation of schools organizing tutoring for students has attracted attention from some local governments. For example, the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education has issued "Five Strict Regulations" to prohibit schools from conducting tutoring and to accept public complaints in order to reduce student pressure and promote quality education.
Tutoring centers in Japan are called "gakushujuku" (学習塾) or "yobikō" (予備校).
蘊藏許多助人的知識與智慧。