The private tuition phenomenon in Malta : moving toward a fairer education system

Abstract

Private tuition is increasingly being equated to unfairness. Although it has the potential to help students who experience learning difficulties at school, it is also an inequitable ploy in the hands of other students as they work up their way to reach status, power and wealth. A review of Maltese research reveals how this purchase of educational privileges appears to favour mostly students from families with a strong financial and educational background. This situation undermines local policy initiatives aimed at providing all students with equal access to quality education and life opportunities. However, rather than suggesting the curtailing of such privileges, this chapter proposes the creation of an educational ambience in which these privileges are less effective. The idea is to blur the existing boundaries between private tuition and mainstream schooling as a starting point toward rendering the Maltese education system fairer.