This essay review examines four different movies that directly or indirectly refer to the theme of private tutoring or, as it is widely called, shadow education. The movies, directed in locations as diverse as India, Turkey, and Cambodia, are all made from a critical perspective. The directors demonstrate
challenges in public education systems and reveal how the privatization of education affects the lives of students, parents, and teachers. The movies differ in genre: Aarakshan is a fiction drama, while the remaining three are documentaries. The documentaries vary in cinematographic techniques,
composition, and quality: 3 Saat was made by a professional filmmaker, while Why Private Tutoring? was produced by a student.published_or_final_versio

Kobakhidze, MN

Comparative Education Review

Kobakhidze, Magda Nutsa

HKU Scholars Hub

Shedding light on shadow education

Magda Nutsa Kobakhidze

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Shedding Light on Shadow EducationAarakshan by Prakash Jha. Mumbai: Prakash Jha Productions, 2011. Hindi with English subtitles. 164 minutes. DVD. $9.95.3 Saat (3 Hours) by Can Candan. Istanbul: Studio Tiglon, 2008. Turkish with English and French subtitles. 118 minutes. $34.52.Private Tutoring in Cambodia by Privatization for Education Research Initiative. London: Cornucopia Productions, 2011. Khmer with English subtitles. 10 minutes. http://www.periglobal.org/role-state/video/video-private-tutoring-cambodia.Rean Kua—Why Private Tutoring? by Tith Chandara from the Royal University of Phnom Penh. 2011. Khmer with English subtitles. 16 minutes. https://youtu.be/VKcuoKrJD0w.

Title Shedding Light on Shadow EducationAuthor(s) Kobakhidze, MNCitation Comparative Education Review, 2015, v. 59 n. 3, p. 577-582Issued Date 2015URL http://hdl.handle.net/10722/216235RightsComparative Education Review. Copyright © University ofChicago Press.; This work is licensed under a CreativeCommons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0International License.Media Essay ReviewShedding Light on Shadow EducationMAGDA NUTSA KOBAKHIDZEAarakshan by Prakash Jha. Mumbai: Prakash Jha Productions, 2011. Hindi with En-glish subtitles. 164 minutes. DVD. $9.95.3 Saat (3 Hours) by Can Candan. Istanbul: Studio Tiglon, 2008. Turkish with En-glish and French subtitles. 118 minutes. $34.52.Private Tutoring in Cambodia by Privatization for Education Research Initiative. Lon-don: Cornucopia Productions, 2011. Khmer with English subtitles. 10 minutes.http://www.periglobal.org/role-state/video/video-private-tutoring-cambodia.Rean Kua—Why Private Tutoring? by Tith Chandara from the Royal University ofPhnom Penh. 2011. Khmer with English subtitles. 16 minutes. https://youtu.be/VKcuoKrJD0w.This essay review examines four different movies that directly or indirectlyrefer to the theme of private tutoring or, as it is widely called, shadow ed-ucation. The movies, directed in locations as diverse as India, Turkey, andCambodia, are all made from a critical perspective. The directors demon-strate challenges in public education systems and reveal how the privatiza-tion of education affects the lives of students, parents, and teachers. Themovies differ in genre: Aarakshan is a ﬁction drama, while the remainingthree are documentaries. The documentaries vary in cinematographic tech-niques, composition, and quality: 3 Saat was made by a professional ﬁlm-maker, while Why Private Tutoring? was produced by a student.AarakshanThis movie is a 2011 Hindi narrative ﬁlm based on the controversialpolicy of educational quotas for low-caste people. Directed by the Bollywoodﬁlmmaker Prakash Jha, who is mostly known for his sociopolitical ﬁlms, thestars include award-winning actors Amitabh Machchan (as Prabhakar Anand),SaifAliKhan(asDeepakKumar)andDeepikaPadukone(asPoorbi).Aarakshanaddresses long-standing social issues, such as inequality, corruption, and nep-otism, and portrays government ofﬁcials who undermine public educationComparative Education Review, vol. 59, no. 3.q 2015 by the Comparative and International Education Society. All rights reserved.0010-4086/2015/5903-0007$10.00Comparative Education Review 577This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditionswhile establishing and encouraging educational business by opening proﬁt-making private tutoring centers. The title Aarakshan translates as “a reser-KOBAKHIDZEvation,” referring to the quota-based afﬁrmative action that allows low-castestudents to gain entrance to higher education institutions and governmentjobs. This policy was controversial, especially among middle and uppermiddle classes in India. Director Prakash Jha is known for putting criticalsocial justice issues into the mainstream Bollywood context, which makessuch issues appealing for a popular audience. Aarakshan attracted much me-dia and public attention both nationally and internationally.Aarakshan is the story of Prabhakar Anand, an idealistic teacher andprincipal of the respected college STM, and his family, loyal students, andteachers. In the ﬁlm, Anand offers free tutoring classes for students from allcastes in the backyard of his house as an act of charity. The college standingcommittee opposes his approval of reservation, and he decides to resignfrom his post. The ruthless and newly appointed principal, Mithilesh Singh(portrayed by Manoj Baipayee), becomes Anand’s enemy. Singh operates aprivate tutoring center in conjunction with the college. The story evolves asa battle between the Anand the idealistic teacher and Singh the opportunisticentrepreneur who dreams of creating an empire of proﬁt-making tutoringcenters. Anand is a man of principles who feels that education should beavailable for all regardless of social class afﬁliation and believes that “a per-son’s intelligence and performance do not depend on one’s background.”Singh views education as a lucrative business and is ready to skip college classesto teach in the tutoring center. He sarcastically says to Anand, “In India’s ed-ucation system, there is no room for teachers like you.”The ﬁlm slowly transitions from a love story between Anand’s daughterPoorbi and Anand’s student Deepak into a narrative of competition betweenthe two tutoring centers, nonproﬁt and for proﬁt. The ﬁrst half of the ﬁlmlooks at Deepak’s life and his failure to start a new job at the prestigiousuniversity because of his social background, while the second half depictsAnand’s struggle to help students with examination preparation and to of-fer them equal educational opportunities through free tutoring.This powerful Bollywood drama not only depicts the challenging livesof teachers and students and their frustration and conﬂict, rebellion, love,and friendship in the highly unequal environment but also carries an im-portant message that education has been commercialized: in the words ofone character, “There is no business bigger than education, paid servicewithout a guarantee.” Perhaps the director has tried to indicate that com-mercialization of education may exacerbate social inequalities in an alreadyhierarchical society. Or perhaps he wants to suggest that with the excessivemarketization of education, the future of India may be at risk.Even with the lack of exploration into the nature of private tutoring,Aarakshan demonstrates a strong negative attitude toward fee-charging, com-578 August 2015This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditionsmercial tutoring, while it favors nonproﬁt educational service. But how can anindividual, charitable approach to inequality be effective system-wide? TheMEDIA ESSAY REVIEWdirector portrays Anand as a hero whose commitment to educational valuesshould save India’s education from commercialization. Anand strongly be-lieves that something must be done, otherwise “private coaching . . . will de-stroy everything!” However, his “solution” to educational inequality—offeringfree tutoring to students—is perhaps overly idealistic with regard to bring-ing social justice to India. The happy ending of Aarakshan, showing that moralvalues, professionalism, and loyalty win over corruption, selﬁshness, and dis-honesty, seems naive when juxtaposed with the reality of India’s highly strat-iﬁed caste system.Prakash Jha manages to show parents’ and students’ anxiety over theexamination system but fails to explore their deep concerns about the sys-tem and its connection with the wider aims of education in India. The movieshows that families from all strata of the society in India are obsessed withprivate tutoring; a vivid impression is that every Indian student—low andhigh achievers alike—needs the service. But what drives such high demand?What is the role of mainstream education in preparing students for highereducation? Questions that address the structural inequality remain unan-swered. The ﬁlm portrays private tutoring as the only option to succeed inthe examination system. Public education has no true advocate in Aarakshan.3 Saat3 Saat (3 Hours) is a 2008 Turkish documentary that depicts the univer-sity student selection examination: each year over a million Turkish appli-cants take national test for three hours straight. 3 Saat explores the lives ofsix applicants—Çiğdem, Derya, Edin, Melis, Mert, and Yunus—before, dur-ing, and after the examination. Despite students’ critical attitudes towardthe examination system in Turkey, and despite their beliefs that one ex-amination should not be the determinant of their future success, they stillfeel obliged to conform to the system because they see no escape.The documentary focuses on the implication of examinations on thepersonal lives of the participants and follows these students and their fami-lies in high schools, private tutoring centers, and various social gatherings.Viewers witness aspirations, concerns, hopes, and disappointments. Turkey’shighly competitive system is central to the lives of young people. Examinationpreparation puts them under enormous pressure and compromises theirleisure time. As noted by one parent, “We steal . . . their lives; we steal awaytheir childhood. That’s what the system requires; we cannot do anything.”The six university applicants come from diverse socioeconomic back-grounds and attend high schools in different neighborhoods of Istanbul.In spite of these differences, all families indicate that the educational ex-Comparative Education Review 579This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditionspenditure causing the greatest ﬁnancial burden is private tutoring. Attend-ing a dersane, or a test preparation school, is perceived as necessary to se-KOBAKHIDZEcure success in the examinations. One parent remarks that “many familiessacriﬁce a lot just to send their kid to test preparation school.” And anotherechoes, “Now you cannot do without test preparation schools. Better ac-cept it! Schools could be closed but the test schools, never!” The studentsreveal that they usually skip mainstream classes during the last two monthsof a graduating year and instead attend a dersane. Some even obtain falsemedical reports of sickness to justify their absence from schools.3 Saat seems to suggest that the university examination selection systemis a life-and-death issue for students and that Turkish society should recon-sider its procedures, content, and mission. While the ﬁlm depicts this sys-tem in an unfavorable light, the director tries to maintain objectivity by bal-ancing opinions. For example, one school principal justiﬁes the examinationsystem by saying that “only this system can accommodate Turkey’s needs,”although this principal does not provide convincing arguments in the ﬁlm.3 Saat succeeds in allowing the viewer hear the voices of the students, par-ents, and school administrations but it omits policy makers’ perspectives.What makes 3 Saat an appealing documentary is not its visual per-ceptions or narrative coherence. Rather, it is its way of drawing emotionalportraits of young people and its grasp of this complex social phenomenon.The ﬁlm won awards from the Turkish Film Critics Association, the AnkaraInternational Film Festival, and the International Istanbul Film Festival.The Pair of Cambodian ProductionsWhile 3 Saat is mainly focused on consumers’ positions, the two shortdocumentaries in this review, Private Tutoring in Cambodia (2011) and WhyPrivate Tutoring? (2011), allow all main stakeholders of the education sys-tem to express their views. The former was produced by Cornucopia Pro-ductions for the Privatization in Education Research Initiative with the ﬁ-nancial support from the Open Society Foundation. In contrast, the latterwas a low-budget project directed by a Cambodian student Tith Chandarafrom the Royal University of Phnom Penh. Both documentaries problem-atize the phenomenon of private tutoring in a low-income country and linkit with social inequalities, corruption, and unequal access to quality educa-tion.The interviews with students, parents, teachers, school principals, anNGO representative and a teachers’ union leader demonstrate that privatetutoring plays a decisive role in Cambodian students’ lives because they seemto require it to complete the curriculum and pass examinations. The majornarrative in both ﬁlms concentrates on the need for private tutoring and thedifﬁculty for most people in both countries to afford it. This narrative is580 August 2015This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditionssupported by parents’ feelings of guilt for being unable to afford the service,as well as those of the students for asking their poor parents to pay forMEDIA ESSAY REVIEWtutoring. These emotions are summarized by one student: “I do not havemoney and it is difﬁcult. I do not feel equal” (Private Tutoring in Cambodia).The indispensable need for tutoring stems from the overloaded curriculum,low teacher salaries, and corruption in education. Teachers, who usuallyteach in both settings, acknowledge the importance of tutoring for studentsand see it as a normal practice. One teacher remarked, “Without private tutor-ing students are not able to get enough knowledge” (Why Private Tutoring?).In the Cambodian documentaries, issues such as inequality, corruption,and inefﬁciency of the education system are portrayed in the light of teach-ers’ low salaries in public schools. The teachers, policy makers, and schoolprincipals agree that teachers need second jobs to survive and that there-fore no regulation of the tutoring market can be effective. While this aspectmight be the central driver of shadow education in Cambodia, neither doc-umentary goes into deeper issues, such as cultural acceptance, or other rea-sons for the normalization and institutionalization of shadow education. Itis also disconcerting to hear a teachers’ union leader state that the elimina-tion of corruption in the government would allow policy makers to improveteachers’ working conditions, which in turn would result in the teachers los-ing interest in providing tutoring, hence raising the quality of regular school-ing. Unfortunately, this solution is not quite persuasive given the complexnature of private tutoring and multiplicity of factors determining success ofeducation systems.ConclusionAll four movies go beyond the educational context and show otheraspects of social life in India, Turkey, and Cambodia. Speciﬁcally, the di-rector of 3 Saat presents the national examination phenomenon in the widercontext of social and economic life, demonstrating cultural values, genderroles, and different lifestyles of diverse social classes. For example, live TVreports on examination results, the anxiety of journalists behind the scenes,and media ﬁxation on statistics of failure and success all reﬂect the newsmedia’s bias and its shallow nature. 3 Saat offers an alternative to the ofﬁcialnarratives of mainstream media and sheds light on the human side of theexamination process. Like 3 Saat, the directors of Why Private Tutoring? andPrivate Tutoring in Cambodia portray Cambodian society’s struggle for eco-nomic survival and its quest for better educational opportunities. Perhapsfor emphasis, the directors chose to depict only the most vulnerable fami-lies and excluded ones who could afford tutoring without pain.While there has been increased focus on the phenomenon of privatetutoring in international scholarly literature over the last two decades, muchComparative Education Review 581This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditionsspace remains for exploration. These narrative and documentary ﬁlms illu-minate the understanding of various aspects of the phenomenon and mayKOBAKHIDZEbe able to reach wider audiences than scholarly literature. Movies like Aarak-shan, 3 Saat, and the two documentaries play an important educational rolein popularizing major issues related to privatization of education and can beused as complementary teaching resources. Each movie refers to the shadoweducation phenomenon within the boundaries of genre, available resources,and diverse perspectives. While there is no deep exploration into the issueof private tutoring, its causes, or its relationships with public education, thedirectors manage to draw attention to major themes and demonstrate themagnitude of the shadow education in the lives of young people and in asociety at large. The ubiquitous nature of the central topic makes the ﬁlmsrelevant not only to the Indian, Turkish, and Cambodian contexts but alsoto many other locations.582 August 2015This content downloaded from 147.8.31.43 on Wed, 2 Sep 2015 03:14:34 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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