In recent years, many children in international schools have employed the services of private tutors on a large scale in order to enhance or improve their performance at school. One name that has become the subject of widely held debate is Divesh Shah, and by extent, his company Math Vision. The majority of students seek help to aid their understanding of math, science and economics which are subjects that are fundamentally difficult to grasp. Students applying to university have utilised the SAT and ACT services they offer. Their supposed aim is to provide “highly trained” and reliable tutors to help guide students from elementary school to the IB examinations.
From their humble beginning in 2007 to an ever-expanding corporation, one aspect of Divesh that cannot be disputed is the fact that the tuition children receive, seems to leave both parents and students satisfied. “I’ve been going to Divesh for a year,” one student says. They went on to explain that they routinely go once a week. When asked about what Diveish provides that school lacks, they proceeded to describe what a general session with a tutor might look like. “Basically, the only thing they do is that the students bring the material, they photocopy the syllabus and teach based on that.” Furthermore “they have a syllabus and revise what you know but put it in notes that you clearly understand.” Whether or not this student was satisfied with the end result of their session, was left unanswered, but from their experience, it can be concluded that the tutors utilise the material based off what the student is learning. This would result in an efficient and concise type of teaching in which students and tutors are able to work smarter and would limit the range of materials the student uses to learn outside of school, so they would hypothetically be learning at the same rate as their peers.
One point the interviewee made that attracted interest was the fact that they mentioned Math Vision tutors “photocopy” the syllabus and by inference the school’s syllabus or the IGCSE/IB syllabus. This raises a civic duty and a moral obligation to investigate the validity of reproducing school and exam material. According to the Cambridge rules and regulations “Registered Centers are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use. However, we cannot give permission to Centres to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within a Centre.” This extract was taken verbatim from the updated, approved Cambridge syllabus textbook. Whether or not Math Vision is a registered centre is not stated on their homepage, but after visiting the centre, the representative I spoke to confirmed that they were registered on the British Council. Even though Math Vision is a registered centre that still does not answer the moral question of whether reproducing a school’s material is a merit business practice or a theft of property.
After visiting Math Vision myself, I asked the representative where they sourced the booklets, but he obfuscated my questions and responded with a non sequitur. “They took my science syllabus outline and told me they would give it back. I’m pretty sure they photocopied it” says the same student.
I later spoke to a math teacher on their concerns about the business practices of Divesh. They raised the point that not all students at UWC can afford to go to the $305 session weekly, $240 of which is to buy the “material” they provide and $65 is for every hour spent one on one with a tutor according to their customary text message for information. Generally, the issue that most people I have spoken to about have all agreed is that Divesh supposedly reproduces and sells materials from the school's syllabus and make a profit off the work of teachers who write the outlines and essentially receive no credit or payment in return. Furthermore, the tuition is only available for those who can pay for it, which is a result of a capitalist society and a free market economy, but the teacher I spoke to revealed that extra help is available at school, but few students to show up for the after school clinics where they can work through the syllabus with their teachers.
“People are paying the school fees, and on top of that, children are choosing to go to Divesh,” the teacher states. When asked what their main concern was in terms of the ethics of Divesh and the methods they use to source their material, they agreed that it was not ideal, but in terms of the academic approach to learning at the centre “Going to tuition is to prepare you for an exam, but you aren’t learning mathematics. This is not necessarily developing the skills to become a mathematician. The bigger picture is being missed.”
After speaking to several representatives of various demographics, I think it is fair to say, while incorporating all opinions, Divesh is privilege and is not available for those who cannot afford to pay the high prices, but after-school math and science clinics are offered for free, and they don’t require extra payment or photocopied material. While some students may want to visit Math Vision to seek additional, concise and relevant help for subjects they may struggle in, other students opt for Divesh to help them structure their exam answers and become better test takers in order to achieve the highest grades possible.
While the decision whether or not to receive additional help outside of school is a student’s own prerogative, it cannot be denied that the money put into Math Vision’s business is funding an opaque cycle of copyright concerns to deliver a convenient but costly service much to the satisfaction of the high demand, in the form of tuition.
Comments