• With no legal framework governing tuition classes, influential tutors are shaping young minds beyond the curriculum with little accountability
• Experts warn that sexist, racist, discriminatory rhetoric is being normalised among students through celebrity-style tuition culture
• Educators, psychologists, gender advocates call for urgent regulation of SL’s powerful private tuition industry
• Commercialised education, social media fame are enabling controversial narratives to reach thousands of students daily

In the landscape of Sri Lanka’s education sector, a disturbing ‘shadow system’ operates almost entirely outside the reach of Government oversight. 

While the Ministry of Education maintains strict mandates for Government and private schools, it currently possesses no regulatory body or legal provision to monitor or register the thousands of private tuition classes across the island. 

With such a backdrop, there is growing concern that several tuition masters who perform mass classes and are especially influential over school-aged youth are teaching harmful rhetoric and narratives to thousands of impressionable minds.

The lack of a formal mandate has created an environment where reports of questionable ideology imparted to underage students often fall through the cracks of the educational system.

The tuition culture

Educationist Dr. Sujata Gamage said that the growing impact of tuition masters was a symptom of broader structural difficulties within Sri Lanka’s education system, adding that changes should focus on rebuilding schools and examination structures rather than just criticising tuition culture. 

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Dr. Gamage noted that the popularity of mass tuition classes came from the shortcomings in the formal education system, specifically inconsistencies in access to quality teaching.

“Tuition is a symptom of a larger problem and there are some structural reforms that need to be implemented, like reducing the number of subjects offered for O/Level and A/Level exams and making the subjects simpler,” she said.

According to Dr. Gamage, tuition classes have served to level the playing field for pupils who do not have access to quality teachers or educational resources in their schools. “Given the present circumstances, tuition teachers actually level the playing field. It does not matter if you do not have a teacher for a certain subject at school, since you can learn these subjects through tuition and sit for the exam,” she added.

Furthermore, she emphasised that schools must become more relevant by encouraging practical and project-based learning, so that students did not have to rely heavily on tuition classes to excel academically.

Dr. Gamage pointed out that the situation of powerful tuition teachers was not unique to Sri Lanka, citing examples such as South Korea, where students spent significant time in private tutoring facilities despite having a developed education system. “The importance of tuition teachers is never going to go away,” she opined. 

“Teachers cannot just deliver their opinion. If a public school teacher talks like that, there will be issues,” she noted, further criticising certain tuition personalities who used their platforms to spread harmful social narratives, particularly on ethnic communities. Referring to a video she had viewed online, she said that certain tuition teachers had propagated statements that looked to encourage racial animosity.

“I have watched a certain teacher’s videos, where he is inciting racial hatred. He insinuates that Muslims are conspiring. It’s a really bad attitude,” she said. 

Propagation of sexist rhetoric  

Women and Media Collective (WMC) Director Programmes – Gender and Political Economy Dr. Sepali Kottegoda expressed concerns over the spread of anti-women narratives in educational settings, warning that such messaging perpetuated patriarchal attitudes and undermined women’s agency.

Dr. Kottegoda claimed that certain statements made by influential tuition figures perpetuated narratives that were extremely anti-gender and anti-women.

“These statements are propagating a narrative that takes away any agency that women and girls have and subjugates that to strong patriarchal norms where the woman is held as the person who does not need to make decisions about her body or have her own understanding of her sexuality. It is trying to curtail any understanding and any ways in which women can articulate their own ideas about their sexuality or about how they should live within a marital relationship, or as daughters and mothers,” she said.

These narratives place a strong emphasis on what women should not do, while also portraying an idealised role for women based on unquestioned patriarchal ideals and norms. “When they say what women should be doing or should not be doing, it is within the framework of living under patriarchal norms without questioning them,” Dr. Kottegoda said, arguing that such rhetoric often belittled women and normalised negative attitudes about gender relations.

Referring to attempts to rationalise violence against women or exert control over women’s behaviour, Dr. Kottegoda stated that these narratives usually portrayed men’s sexuality as uncontrollable and shifted the burden of prevention of abuse on women. 

The harmful rhetoric that certain tuition teachers are spreading focuses on regulating how a woman must act, dress, walk, talk, live, and more in order to avoid “provoking these uncontrollable desires of men,” according to her. She noted that such arguments were often used to reinforce gender discriminatory attitudes and justify violence against women.

Dr. Kottegoda further voiced concern about the lack of oversight in the tuition sector. “If these are people who are supposedly teachers, there needs to be some way of addressing this. The tuition system is not regulated and there is no authority overseeing how subjects are taught,” she added.

Dr. Kottegoda stressed that the discussions and teachings about sexuality, gender, and relationships should take a broader, evidence-based approach rather than being utilised selectively to justify control of women.

Regulating tuition classes

Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) President Priyantha Fernando told The Sunday Morning that more regulations were required for Sri Lanka’s private tuition sector and warned that some tuition sessions were being used to promote certain agendas and viewpoints unrelated to education. 

He said that tuition teachers should focus on the formal curriculum and expressed concern over the growing impact of popular tuition masters who used huge classrooms and social media channels to reach pupils.

“There is a formal curriculum. Going beyond that, especially the methods used within the private education sector in Sri Lanka for the sake of popularity, is a serious issue,” he noted.

His statements were in response to concerns about some tuition personalities expressing personal opinions in class, such as views on gender, social issues, and other controversial topics that could affect young students.

Fernando emphasised that students attended tuition classes to study academic material, but were frequently exposed to views irrelevant to their studies.

“Students are paying money to go there, and they are having things unrelated to the curriculum put into their heads, which is leading to the development of distorted mentalities in students. This has had an especially severe impact on Advanced Level education,” he said.

He also alleged that certain tuition classes were being used to push political agendas, describing it as a serious problem within the sector. He stated that the union did not endorse such activities and believed that the tuition industry should be subjected to clear regulations and guidelines.

“Our stance is that tuition must be regulated, and this needs to be addressed in the new education reforms,” he noted.

Fernando advocated for Government intervention, saying: “The Government must intervene fully and control this. It should implement a set of guidelines and regulations for this.”

He claimed that the misconduct of private tuition teachers had negatively impacted both educational outcomes and student attitudes. “Private classes are being used very incorrectly, and this has severely affected students’ results as well as led to the creation of violent attitudes in them,” he said.

Fernando further claimed that the usage of controversial statements by tuition teachers was mostly aimed towards maintaining popularity among students and through social media. 

When contacted by The Sunday Morning, Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Madhura Senevirathna said that while there was no regulatory body within the ministry nor provisions that dealt with tuition classes, the Ministry of Women and Child Affairs had the provision to intervene in cases that may be deemed as harassment.

“The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has a hotline that children can call directly. There are about five relevant officers there who can be contacted,” he said.

He affirmed that for institutions such as private schools, the ministry could intervene and had the ability and authority to mandate their proceedings, although noting that tuition classes remained out of its reach.

A disturbing reality

Several videos have been circulated online with regard to the inappropriate ideology propagated by tuition classes, although some figures have more influence than others. 

A popular A/Level Biology teacher has drawn attention as his ideology transcends biology and instead fixates on outdated gender norms. In multiple videos online, he strongly advocates for traditional gender roles within the household, arguing that “women should be like women and men should be like men”. 

He suggests that modern society has experienced a role reversal that disrupts the domestic balance, where men and women have distinct primary duties: where men are traditionally seen as providers – those who “bring rice home” – and women are told to prioritise childcare and cooking.

The teacher also criticises the lack of cooking skills among ‘modern women,’ claiming that when women cannot cook a palatable dhal curry – describing poor attempts as being like a “bag of vomit” – they rely on ‘soup cubes’ as their only solution to make the food taste better.

He claims his views are controversial, and notes that whenever such statements are made, “women’s organisations come to attack the messenger”. 

However, such incidents are not confined solely to the divide between men and women; certain tuition teachers also spread harmful racist ideology that creates divisions between religions. 

Another popular A/Level Biology teacher, who also makes videos on YouTube, has been noted to make generalisations regarding minority communities during his lectures and plant problematic ideas in his students’ minds.

His content also often blends biological science with traditional Sinhala-Buddhist cultural values, raising concerns that his platform occasionally amplifies Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism.

Deep-rooted flaws in edu system 

SLIIT Faculty of Humanities and Sciences School of Psychology Senior Lecturer and Clinical Psychologist Lakmal Ponnamperuma warned that the growing influence of celebrity-like tuition teachers could pave the path to the normalisation of discrimination among young people, especially when controversial views were delivered by authority figures whom students admired and trusted.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ponnamperuma said that the issue went beyond individual statements by tuition teachers and exposed deep-rooted flaws in Sri Lanka’s education system. “Sri Lankan tuition culture is not simply about funny speeches or entertainment. It reflects deeper social and psychological issues within our education system and wider society,” he said.

According to Ponnamperuma, the commercialisation of education has elevated certain tuition teachers to celebrity figures competing for popularity, exposure, and student numbers. In that context, controversial and emotionally charged narratives frequently attract more attention than rational conversations.

“Because of competition and commercialisation, education is increasingly mixed with performance and entertainment. To keep students engaged, some teachers use emotionally exciting, controversial, and socially divisive statements that insult women, mock sexual minorities, degrade sex workers, and promote harmful stereotypes. Some even spread unhealthy religious misconceptions in the name of culture and morality,” he noted.

Ponnamperuma further stated that many adolescents were especially vulnerable to such messages because they had not been effectively trained to critically assess information. 

“Students, especially adolescents, often absorb information emotionally rather than analytically. If a popular teacher says something confidently, humorously, and repeatedly, students may accept it as truth without questioning it or the social consequences,” he explained, noting that it was not entirely the fault of students. 

He said that this tendency was rooted in the flaws in Sri Lanka’s educational system, which he claimed prioritised academic knowledge and technical skills over critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and attitude development.

“In Sri Lanka, early childhood education – what we term preschool education – focuses mainly on academic preparations. Compared to other countries, our system provides very little attention in terms of empathy, emotional understanding, diversity, respect, social inclusion, and critical thinking. When children are not exposed to enough healthy social attitudes early in life, they later become vulnerable to prejudice, group behaviours, group thinking, and emotionally manipulative messages,” he said.

The normalisation of discrimination

Ponnamperuma also noted that students may graduate with strong academic qualifications due to knowledge and skill, but with limited social awareness that made them struggle to respectfully engage with people who were different from themselves. “This is a dangerous gap, and students tend to normalise discrimination if it is presented through humour, charisma, and authority figures,” he said.

He also pointed out that tuition classes frequently served as social identity spaces in which students formed emotional attachments to teachers and peer groups, making them more willing to accept controversial claims in order to feel a sense of community. 

“If women are repeatedly described negatively, students may slowly accept sexism as normal behaviour. If LGBTQIA+ individuals are consistently mocked, discrimination becomes socially acceptable within student culture,” he said. 

Ponnamperuma also said that this situation was mostly caused by teachers competing in the tuition industry under intense pressure for popularity, class numbers, visibility, and market success. “Unfortunately, social media amplifies this. Short clips of fun, savage, or controversial classroom moments spread rapidly online and students share them because they are entertaining, not because they are educationally healthy.”

He also stressed that educators should encourage questioning rather than blind acceptance, emphasising that students must learn how to question ideas respectfully rather than blindly accepting authority. 

Ponnamperuma proposed reforms beginning with early childhood education, with a focus on empathy, diversity, inclusiveness, emotional development, and critical thinking. He also urged schools and institutions to shift away from exam-focused instruction and instead prioritise ethical reasoning, media literacy, and independent thinking. 

“Humour is not the problem. Entertainment is not the problem. The issue is when discrimination, prejudice, and unhealthy ideologies become normalised under the guise of motivation or comedy,” he pointed out.