Like mushrooms, they are now sprouting everywhere.

Tutorial and review centers are screaming their names in posters, streamers and other forms of media in order to advertise themselves. Indeed, education has obviously taken a commercial twist.

The ever enterprising Filipino has again caught an eye on yet another profitable venture.

Seeing the need of many students with parents who are busy with their jobs to supervise and guide them in their schoolwork, enterprising teachers found ways to extend their assistance and services by means of tutorial and review centers.

Tutorial centers commonly offer tutoring services for pre-school, elementary and high school students - in all subject areas, especially the difficult subjects of Math and Science. On the other hand, review centers (apart from the board exam review centers) give and conduct reviews for fourth year high school students in preparation for college entrance examinations particularly in schools like De La Salle University (DLSU), Ateneo University and University of the Philippines. Tutorial centers do not always offer review sessions, although review centers extend their services for tutorials during regular school days because the reviews are usually done during summer when incoming fourth year students start preparing for college entrance exams that are mostly given on the first quarter of the school year.

I should say this is a mark of development - but only IF these tutorial and review centers are INDEED delivering the goods. I hope they are not there for business sake only, and that their instructions are really helping the students in coping with their school work and preparing for college entrance tests.

I have tried enrolling my second son (the Junior) and daughter in tutorial centers during the times when I was very busy with work. I should say the results were not very satisfactory. For the reason that the tutors have many other tutees lined up waiting for their turn, they were not really able to concentrate their instruction on my children. And the time of instruction was very limited - for only an hour per sessioin - it would be impossible to cover all areas of learning, especially so that the kids were given lots of homework, some of which required researching.

From experience, I have realized that the best tutors for children are the parents themselves. But of course, this is not always possible considering the fact that they have to work and provide for the food, shelter, clothing and education of their children. In this case, they have no other recourse but to have their children tutored. However, it is wise for parents to go over their children’s notes every now and then - and at least make themselves involved with their kids’ progress. The mistake of many parents is that once they enrol their kids in tutorial and review centers, they expect miracles to happen. They think that their children will ace their subjects already. It should be understood that these learning centers are only extensions of the school and they do not fully guarantee that the kids will indeed improve in school, or that they will pass college entrance exams.

In the end, it all boils down to one thing: it all depends on the child’s own initiative to perform well, and  the parents’ willingness to make time in order to supervise and boost their kids’ learning.

Note: If parents can really afford it - it would be best for them to hire a private tutor - one who can come and provide home tutoring, on a one on one basis for two to three hours a day, five days a week. Well, the fee is naturally much higher, but if they have the money to spare, it is worth the price. (I have heard that filthy rich familes hire ‘live in’ tutors for their children - who act like governesses and stay with the children 24/7, teaching them not only academics but training them as well with manners, etiquettes and social graces. But oh, well.. these are the ‘royalties’ of sorts. And the hitch here is the kids might become more attached to their governesses than with their own parents.