Parent: “Teachers have us by the throat” Up to PLN 2,500 a month for tutoring to pass the final exams

The parent described realities which, as they argue, all parents know, although not everyone wants to talk about them openly.
Above all, they emphasized that parents in Bolesławiec have had enough of the high fees for private tutoring. Some pay as much as PLN 2,500 a month, the best teachers work “wholesale,” and children from poorer homes—as they claim—have no chance.

Tutoring wholesale and “nobody takes BLIK”

The most explicit picture concerns finances. According to the parent, teachers in Bolesławiec and the surrounding area provide tutoring on an almost industrial scale:

– Teachers are like companies. Tutoring for the final exams costs PLN 100 an hour, and they take four students a day. Good preparation for the final exams costs as much as PLN 2,500 a month. Every one of us pays—writes the parent.
They add that some teachers even rent apartments where they set up rooms with blackboards so that, as they write, they can “do it wholesale.”
This is where the most controversial term for this way of supplementing one’s salary appears. In the email, the parent compared the tutoring industry to another illegal activity.

– To me, tutoring is currently a larger and more profitable industry than brothels—wrote the parent, adding that, unlike that other industry, this one remains completely outside any control. – I have nothing against tutoring. But teachers should set up companies. Then this industry would be subject to control— the parent argues.

Online tutoring is taking a piece of the pie

The parent stated that the popularity of online classes has significantly weakened the position of traditional tutors. They admit that they sent an inquiry to other parents whose children scored more than 80 percent in chemistry. It turned out that all of them had taken online tutoring.

– Once, if you wanted to get a good score, the waiting list for tutoring was two years long. Today you have thousands of apps, platforms and individual classes. You go online and find people with qualifications and achievements, statistics showing how many students they prepared and what results they achieved, while students offer the same service for half the price. Everything can be verified. The result? Nobody wants to go to weak local teachers anymore—the parent adds.

The most troubling thread concerns the atmosphere in schools. – Teachers exchange students. Mine to you, yours to me, and the top grades are guaranteed—the parent describes it. They add that at one of the secondary schools, children start taking tutoring as early as September of their first year.

Are children with good grades the children of wealthy parents?

The parent draws bitter conclusions. – Kids from poorer homes have no chance. Those in the middle tear themselves apart. And no parent will complain, because they are afraid the child will suffer the consequences.
The parent harshly assesses the Ministry of Education’s opinion on the condition of schooling in Poland.

– I listen to Minister Nowacka, who says that education in Poland is at a good level, and that teachers deserve pay rises and respect. For what?—the parent asks, claiming that children without money are in the most difficult situation.

The harshest words, however, are directed at educators themselves. – Teachers are lazy and sly, and you can’t do anything to them because they have us by the throat. They have our children—the parent adds at the end of the email.

Teachers’ perspective: how can public schools help children and young people?

We asked nine teachers from Bolesławiec for their opinions on the tutoring market in Bolesławiec, whether they agreed with what the parent claimed or had different information on the subject. Three responded. The teachers see the issue from a completely different perspective and add other points to the parent’s account.

– Young adults often complain about… a lack of contact with their parents—writes Zuzanna Królak. – Parents often do not know about their problems or simply about their interests, which affects the subjects they choose for the final exams. Of course, there are good and bad teachers, and there are greedy ones too, but parents also often buy tutoring for children who do not need it, just “in case,” and from my personal experience, back when I was a student myself, students who took tutoring often disrupted lessons and did not pay attention because they thought they would discuss the topic during tutoring—says the teacher.

She also adds that the problem with tutoring is a nationwide problem. The Polish Teachers’ Union has organized a protest for August 31.

– Parents in Warsaw, Jelenia Góra and many other cities and towns face similar problems—explains teacher Zuzanna Królak. – Classes are overcrowded, and teachers are overwhelmed with tasks and responsibilities. The average age in the profession is also high, which results in more frequent teacher absences for health reasons. Salaries are not attractive enough to draw young teachers and ensure an adequate generational change among staff. This also means that selection within the profession is negative. The Ministry is carrying out reforms while completely ignoring teachers’ voices. On the other hand, as teachers we notice that motivating students and monitoring their progress on an ongoing basis is the responsibility not only of teachers but also of parents—the teacher adds.

We have a free-market economy; tutoring is part of it

Another teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, asked whether the parent was accusing teachers of being hardworking and earning extra money after school hours.

– As for tutoring itself, remote lessons may simply be more convenient and cheaper, although it is difficult for me to say because I do not follow this market—says the teacher, who wished to remain anonymous. – I also have no information about teachers exchanging students. I work at a rural primary school, where only a small percentage use tutoring. Besides, there was no such problem at the urban primary school either. As a homeroom teacher and special-needucation teacher who is in regular contact with many parents, I have never heard similar complaints about tutoring—he added.

The third teacher, who also asked to remain anonymous, believes that the issue of tutoring is important, but should be viewed from multiple perspectives. She reminds us that we live in a country where, for now, a free-market economy operates, and in this system demand determines supply.

– It is also untrue that teachers generally use various forms of pressure to send students to one another for private lessons—says the teacher. – If this happens, these are isolated cases that cannot be used to judge everyone. Most teachers are pleased when their students are independent and self-reliant in their thinking and actions, can prepare for classes and exams, and study systematically. Another problem is that parents lack faith that their children can prepare for exams independently. It may also be a lack of faith that the school has prepared them properly. And if so, why did the parent not speak earlier with the teachers? Seriously, factually and calmly. Not in an accusatory tone involving a personal attack, hate, an intervention with the principal or the school superintendent, but in the form of a conversation. Every sensible teacher—and they are the majority—will approach it with openness and understanding—the teacher adds.

Classes too large and teaching itself in need of change

The teacher adds that an important question remains: how can public schools help children and young people—those who need it because of various disabilities and those in a difficult financial situation?

– Such help for the former has existed for years—says the teacher. – They only need to be willing to use it. Additional classes are available in schools, including secondary schools. They only need to be willing to use them. I also do not know a teacher who would refuse to help a student who approached them. As for helping children and young people in a difficult financial situation, this is complicated at present. For a simple reason: the school has no knowledge of the financial situation of individual families. That is the private matter of the student and the parent—the teacher adds.

All the teachers speak with one voice about the need for many systemic changes, changes to the format of some subjects and limits on class sizes, because only in this way can all students be reached. Teachers are also needed who like their profession, are professional, feel secure, are active and ready to develop, while also being financially independent. And this is where the Polish state has a great deal of work to do.