As SSC results are published, the marks tell only part of the story.

For some students, preparing for the examination meant hours with a private tutor. For others, it meant shared coaching classes, independent study, or simply making do without additional lessons because the cost was too high.

“Private tuition was always a privilege to me,” one student said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “I used to get coaching, shared classes of one teacher during school time with other people, but could never afford a private teacher. I even passed my HSC without having any private tuition or coaching, because I used to study in a private college, and it already cost a lot for me. So adding more cost to it wasn’t possible.”

For the student, the choice was not between studying with or without extra help. A private tutor was simply beyond the family’s budget, while shared coaching offered a less expensive alternative.

A second classroom, priced separately

For many students preparing for the SSC and HSC exams, private tuition is no longer treated as an extra. It has become something closer to a second classroom, running alongside the official one and paid for separately.

Around 85 percent of students in classes 8 and 9 took private tuition to recover education losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, according to the Education Watch 2022 report, Post-Pandemic Education: Recovery and Renewal of School Education. The study found that 64 percent of Class 8 students and 50 percent of Class 9 students spent between Tk1,100 and Tk3,000 a month on private tuition.

Questions have also been raised about whether private tuition is always a choice made by families.

Manzoor Ahmed, founder of BRAC University’s Institute of Educational Development, raised concerns about the role of classroom teaching in driving students towards additional paid lessons. In a 2024 report on rising education expenses, he said, “In many cases, teachers force students to use guidebooks, notebooks and take private lessons.”

For Saleha Haque (pseudonym), the cost became significant when her younger daughter was preparing for the SSC examination. She paid Tk12,000 for private tuition in just three subjects: physics, chemistry and higher mathematics.

“For my younger daughter during her SSC, I had to pay Tk12 thousand for private tuition, and that’s also for physics, chemistry and higher math only, these three subjects,” Haque said. “I mean, people’s house rent would be maybe Tk12 thousand, and here [we were] paying Tk12 thousand for only private tuition.”

The amount covered private tuition for only three subjects, illustrating how quickly education expenses can add up for families preparing a child for a major public examination.

Affordability

Affording tuition is not simply a question of whether a family has an income. It is also about what remains after school fees, transport, books and other educational expenses have been paid.

For the first student, private-college fees had already taken up a significant part of the family’s education budget. Shared coaching became the more affordable option, while a private tutor remained out of reach.

The student still passed the HSC without private tuition or coaching. But that outcome does not erase the financial barrier. It shows only that the student managed to study without the additional support that many other students receive.

Being able to afford private tuition does not necessarily mean a student will be welcoming it.

Radia Tasnim, now a medical aspirant, had a private tutor throughout school. She found the experience exhausting rather than helpful.

“Private tuition seemed like an extra hassle to me. I didn’t want to sit with my private tutor after five hours of a hectic school day. I used to literally cry when my teacher used to come.”

Her experience is different from that of the student who could not afford a private tutor. Yet both show how private tuition can become part of a student’s routine, regardless of whether they actually want it.

For one student, the barrier is money. For another, it is the pressure and exhaustion that come with adding another lesson to an already long school day.

What the result sheet doesn’t show

Today, SSC results will tell students their grades and marks. They will not show how those marks were earned.

Two students can sit for the same examination and receive similar marks while taking very different routes to get there. One may have a private tutor working individually on weak subjects. Another may rely on shared coaching and independent study because that is what the family can afford.

One student may have spent thousands of taka on additional lessons. Another may have prepared largely on their own.

The result records the marks. It does not record the route a student had to take to earn them, or what the family had to spend along the way.