Corruption risks of private tutoring: case of Georgia

Abstract

The paper focuses on teacher-supplied private tutoring in the context of post-Soviet Georgia, and elucidates the ways in which teacher-supplied private tutoring can be related to educational corruption. The paper draws on data from in-depth interviews of 18 school teachers in different parts of Georgia in 2013. The findings of the qualitative study indicate challenges that teachers face as a result of their dual lives between schools and private tutoring. The challenges include moral dilemmas related to tutoring their students. The paper discusses how private tutoring becomes a “survival strategy” in the education system with low teacher pay, weak accountability system, and lack of monitoring efficacy. It highlights that the widely normalized practice in Georgia of teachers tutoring their students is not necessarily a form of corruption. However, it includes a high risk of corruption because of a thin line existing between teacher professional ethics and misconduct. Understanding how teachers rationalize tutoring their students contributes to the international research agenda by exploring teachers' perspectives on private tutoring, and offers insights into what constitutes teacher corruption in post-Soviet Georgia, making an important contribution to the international scholarship on educational corruption.

Keywords::

• teacher corruption
• private tutoring
• post-Soviet Georgia

Notes

^1. “Revolution of Roses” refers to a change of political power in Georgia on 23 November 2003 when, after massive street protests, President E. Shevardnadze was forced to resign.

^2. While 23 years have passed since the break-up of the Soviet Union, its legacy largely defines contemporary life and policies in Georgia. I describe the general background of teacher profession in Georgia in the post-Soviet context because a significant portion of teachers has the Soviet background and many of them taught during the Soviet times. Perceptions about teacher profession are in many ways informed by the memories and myths about the Soviet Union.

^3. The subsistence level is calculated based on the minimum food basket defined by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Affairs of Georgia. For example, in 2005 the subsistence level for an average family was 160.3 GEL ( ∼ US$90), while a teacher's basic salary was 115 GEL ( ∼ US$65) (GeoStat, 2014; MoES, 2013).

^4. For example, in 2012–2013 academic years, female teachers comprised 85% of total teaching force (GeoStat, 2014).

^5. Tutoring provided by the teachers usually takes place in teachers' homes. Teachers used terms like “teaching at school” and “teaching at home” to differentiate between school and private tutoring.

^6. The term “Robin Hood Teachers” was coined by Professor Roger Dale during my discussion with him about this phenomenon in Georgia on 8 May 2014.

^7. Given the sensitivity of the topic, third person accounts in the interviews mostly served as a mechanism to anonymize teachers' identity. I observed that in this case, participant teachers felt more secure and data confidentiality was better guaranteed.