One of the things that has always been hammered into us by our parents and those entrepreneurial businessmen who have been successful is that you must have a good basic education. As a parent we do everything we can to make sure our kids are doing okay at school, not having any social problems, getting on with their teachers, and basically having a good educational experience. As the kids progress through primary grades, it can come as a bit of a shock if your child comes home with his grade 6 report that states he is heading for failure in a subject.

This was the basis of a conversation I was having over a cup of coffee with a couple of my friends, Edith, and Christine, whose kids went to the same school as mine. Our children were getting to the stage of gaining entry to the secondary level and within 2 to 3 years their subjects should be shaping their career goals. We were just discussing what sort of steps to take if we thought one of our kids wasn’t doing so well and we weren’t really in a position to help them a great deal. We are probably all okay in the English language, but any in-depth foray into physics, chemistry, or maths would probably put us in a position where we needed to get private tuition.

Edith was saying that her daughter’s English teacher also did a bit of moonlighting with online tuition. In fact, the amount of online teaching these days being provided by companies was nothing short of amazing. There is evidently an increasing trend for education systems to use specific software for online teaching. This included tertiary courses such as University degrees and even an mba sustainability online programme, as well as many other forms of training that were all now available online.

Christine’s brother, Stephen, had only recently returned from Southeast Asia where he had been teaching English. The salary he picked up for that enabled him to tour around that continent, be provided with accommodation, and to gain some invaluable teaching experience for the future. If you look at the positives of online education, there are many. For a start, it’s a little bit cheaper than having somebody come around to your house and do some private tutoring. There is also the added privacy and security when the tutor is online, maybe even in another country, and knows nothing more of your personal details than the fact that you are looking for lessons.

The discussion degenerated a little bit after the 2nd cup of coffee as we pondered on the possibility that schools would no longer exist and that all teaching and schooling would be done online. The thought of never having our kids out of the house for a bit of peace and quiet was a scary thought. We passed on the next cup of coffee and ordered a glass of wine instead!