Breaking free of the tuition trap

Private tutoring needlessly burdens young students. But banning it is not an option.

On a late afternoon a few summers ago in Dharan, I found myself among a dozen of my Grade 11 classmates in a cramped room that smelt of sweat. My palms were moist, my shoulders brushed with those of my friends on either side, and the benches hardly fit our bodies. I was drowsy, and I could hardly register what the maths teacher was saying.