Homa Bay parents have called on the Ministry of Education to review the ban on holiday tuition, citing a drop in education standards since its enforcement. Peter Oduor said the performance of the Nyanza region in national examinations had dropped since the holiday tuition ban was effected, considering that at first, Nyanza was at the top. He explained that tuition only provides remedial teaching, thus balancing the pace of slow and fast learners.
Mary Adhiambo supported the view, noting that holiday tuition allows teachers to focus on slow learners hence improving the overall results. John Opondo added that holiday tuition succeeded in Tanzania, Cambodia, Japan, and South Africa, so it must work in Kenya as well.
He said that this year has been marred by many interruptions—a factor that necessitates the government to allow willing teachers to have holiday tuition in a bid to complete the syllabus on time for revision before national examinations—which involves the recent El Niño rains and the Gen Z anti-Financial Bill protests.
According to Paul Agome, both private and public holiday tuition previously kept children busy, hence could not do any bad behaviours like drug abuse.
Over a decade ago, the government scrapped holiday tuition citing the financial exploitation by teachers and overburdening of students. However, with the beginning of the August holidays this week, that will run for three weeks, parents in Homa Bay feel the ban should be lifted to restore the dwindling education standards and help the children that need support.