Writing Question:
The desire to get better marks is commonplace among students and because of this, cram schools are now a multi-million-dollar industry. Write a letter to the editor of the Hong Kong Express about the obsession with tutorial classes.

Dear Editor,

I am writing to express my views on the recent phenomenon of attending tutorial classes. It is undoubtedly a popular trend among students nowadays. However, even though some students might get a boost in their academic results, I still believe these classes are doing more harm than good.

To begin with, the first drawback is that students may easily rely too much on their uninspiring way of teaching. They would tend to pay less attention during normal day schooling. Since students attending tutorial classes aim only at getting tips from the tutors, they may ignore their teachers in day schools when their teachings are less related to public examinations. This would bring distortion to the education environment because they may no longer be pursuing knowledge but only skills in handling examinations. From a business point of view, tutorial classes provide step by step approach for students to follow but they would not need to go through different stages of critical thinking, let alone doing research on their own studies.

In addition, the obsession with distorted learning alters the atmosphere around others since teenagers are easily affected by their peers and some might end up taking these classes even when they do not need them. Not only will the obsession decay students’ attitude in regular schooling but it will also materialize their mind, thinking learning is just for short term gain. Worse still, some might even be contaminated with selfish mindsets such as keeping useful notes only to themselves and disturbing others so that others would not do as well. Isn’t this a complete backlash to the original point of education?
 
Last but not least, the tutorial classes are not worth the money. It is understandable that students have heavy pressure in improving their academic results. Yet, the cash they spent might not buy them what they had expected. One reason for this is that the tutors would not care the individual needs of each student. For the already capable ones, the extra exposure and input may sweeten their learning, but the less capable ones will have to memorize the notes by heart for their lack of base knowledge on the subjects. Also, the tutorial classes are not cheap. When free education has already been provided by the government, why should anyone neglect what they have been blessed but squander time and money on an education system with a smaller scale?

All in all, this trend is not advisable for students and it is against the primary purpose of education. This obsession should be stopped and by no means should education be turn to a business.

Yours faithfully,

6A(2) Suni Chung