REMEDIAL LESSONS OR LEGALISED EXTORTION? - THE EDUCATION CRISIS NOBODY WANTS TO ADDRESS
Dear Parents,
In just a matter of days, our sons and daughters will be streaming back to school for Term Two... The longest and arguably the most demanding term in the academic calendar.
And once again, one issue will quietly but forcefully take centre stage: REMEDIAL LESSONS and the money attached to them.
But before we normalise it, let’s ask a very simple question: What exactly is “remedial”?
By definition, remedial comes from the word remedy. To correct a problem, to fix a gap or to address a weakness. A remedy is supposed to solve a problem. Not create a new one on top of an existing one.
Yet in many of our schools today, remedial has been turned into something else entirely. It has become mandatory. In some cases, when a parent pays school fees, remedial money is deducted first, even before essentials like medical care.
Why? Because remedial has quietly become a “financial cover.” A flexible fund that can be used, misused by the school management or reallocated with minimal accountability. With the right internal alignments, it becomes almost unquestionable.
And parents? They pay. Not necessarily because they agree. But because they are pressured, threatened and cornered.
If a parent questions, their children are isolated. Parents are intimidated and compliance becomes survival.
But here’s the bigger question: What is this money actually achieving?
The painful reality is this that the same parents paying remedial fees are still receiving poor academic results from their children. So, what exactly are we “remedying”?
In many cases, remedial lessons are not being used to address learning gaps. They are being used to rush through the syllabus. Most teachers do not even take time to sit down with learners and identify:
What exactly is the problem?
Which concepts were not understood?
Where the gaps actually are.
Instead, remedial has become an extension of normal teaching..... a tool to “finish the syllabus” and tick boxes during staff meetings. “I finished the syllabus in Term Two.”
It becomes a badge of honour. But at what cost? ..... The Learner is Being Left Behind
In every classroom, there are fast learners, average learners and slow learners. But today, many learners:
Are not given time for personal study
Don’t reflect on what they have learned
Don’t identify their own weaknesses
Why? Because they are constantly in class from as early as 4am through the entire school day, into the evening, weekends and holidays.
At what point does a child:
Think independently?
Practice concepts?
Build self-discipline in learning?
Instead of solving the problem, the teachers are compounding it. They are piling new content on top of ununderstood concepts, forgotten lessons and shaky foundations.
That is not remedy. That is academic overload.
Please note that there are growing concerns that in some schools over regular lessons being skipped or poorly attended, then later “taught” during (illegally) paid remedial sessions
Meaning:
Parents are indirectly paying for what teachers are already salaried by the government to do but those same lessons being signed off as “remedial.”
This is the reason that we must ask — Who is this system really serving?
Many parents see what is happening. They know something is wrong but when they speak up:
They are labelled “difficult” or “arrogant”
Their children are profiled
Some students are pushed out through intimidation
For this very reason, parents choose silence, even as they continue paying. But silence does not solve the problem. It sustains it. Perhaps the most glaring contradiction is this: Even new students (including those in Grade 10) are being charged remedial fees immediately upon admission before any assessment is done and any learning gaps are identified
So again, as parents we must ask: Remedial for what problem exactly?
This is where the debate must intensify because if we are collecting money to “fix” problems that have not even been identified, then we are no longer talking about education. We are talking about a systemic con.
Parents are not refusing to support their children. They are asking for one simple thing: Value. Transparency. Results.
If remedial money is to be collected:
Let it address specific weaknesses
Let it target real learning gaps
Let it produce measurable improvement
So that a parent can confidently say: “I paid for remedial and I can see the results.” Anything short of that raises serious questions.
This conversation is long overdue because education should never become a marketplace where desperation is exploited and where “remedy” becomes the very problem it was meant to solve.
.png)
No comments: