After-school mathematics tutorials in Ghana: A qualitative study on senior high students' psychosocial experiences

Mathematics is an important subject in senior high education as it forms the basis for most taught subjects. In Ghana, it is a common practice to find parents enrolling their children in private after-school mathematics tutorials. Teachers who teach after-school tutorials usually organize class after school hours or during the weekends for a fee. Also, teaching can take the form of one-to-one private tuition or group tuition. Although after-school mathematics tuition has become a common practice, little is known regarding the experiences of these senior high students who receive this tuition in Ghana. We purposively sampled 35 senior high students from public schools for both individual and group interviews. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, we observed that private tutorial learning in mathematics increased students' understanding of the subject. Students who had this extra tuition also expressed a dramatic improvement in their performance in mathematics. Nevertheless, we observed that students felt bored when there was a repetition of topics that had already been taught in class. Furthermore, we observed that participants perceived this additional tuition as an additional academic stressor as it prevented them from having adequate rest and extra-curricular activities. We recommend that the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, and other stakeholders should regulate the private after-school mathematics tutorials in Ghana. 2020 by Academic Publishing House Researcher s.r.o.