Editor,

Today coaching has lost its rightful meaning yet this negative attitude associated with coaching only affects the children. Putting in mind that the benefits of coaching outweigh the negatives, parents should reconsider the possibilities of coaching as a means to successful learning rather than an end.

Let’s remember that today’s syllabus does not cater for students who are slow learners. There are some students with very short concentration spans of only two hours in a whole day. These definitely need coaching. Given that most lessons are limited to a period of 40 minutes yet the amount of material to teach is a lot, that means that the syllabus only caters for fast learners with longer concentration spans and leaves out the slower ones.

Further still the education system in developing countries is to a greater extent not student-centered as compared to the developed nations. Developing countries practice a teacher-centered educational practice where almost all classroom activities are done by the teachers.

There is less involvement of students during classroom lesson since the teachers also do the thinking for them. However, if lessons become student-centered, then a lot can be changed. Probably with time there will be no need for intensive coaching during the holiday.

Catherine Mwebaze
Gikondo