Tempt parents with offers and discounts... and pay in cash or "flexes".
Private lessons on “Social Media” .. a market run by intruders (2-2)
Dr. Badria Al-Junaibi: “Ads promoting private lessons should be included in the prohibited content on social media platforms.”
picture
“Pay for one class, get the other for free...for a limited time. Flex lessons packages at half the price when subscribing to more than 50 classes.” To a trade or economic system that aims to sell an “educational” commodity to develop “the capital of sellers or providers of the commodity,” whether they are qualified teachers or illegal practitioners of the teaching profession.
The “voluntary” demand for private lessons is increasing throughout the school year by parents, as they are a desirable basic commodity for their children “even if they hate it”, especially during school exam seasons. Advertisements in which they promote their knowledge, experiences and abilities to communicate school curricula to students' minds and train them to pass exams in the simplest and fastest way and achieve the best results.
"Emirates Today" monitored a large and varied amount of advertisements promoting private lessons on various social media platforms, from people and sites inside and outside the country, and made contacts with a number of those in charge of them, who asked not to disclose their names, (some of them are teachers and others do not teach) to know the extent The demand for them, the nature of the services provided to students and their suitability for their different curricula, as well as prices and seasons of promotions.
The Ta’alami website (established from within the country), presented one of the strangest and most prominent promotions for private lessons, called “Flex Packages.” The site manager (F.M) defined it as a system that provides discounted prices for parents and students in all subjects and all educational curricula. She explained that the "flex" offers include discounts on stake prices, ranging between 52 and 55%, and flexes start from "20 stakes" at about 1,200 dirhams, passing through "50 stakes" at a value of 2,650 dirhams, and ending with "100 stakes" for a total of 4,800 dirhams.
F.M said: "We have specialized and experienced teachers to suit the various school curricula in the country (governmental, British, American, and others) in various subjects and classes," explaining that the lessons are individual for each student, using the "online" system. The “Zoom” platform, and the student’s needs of flexes are determined according to a level measurement conducted by specialists.
While the engineer (MA), founder of the group "Mr. MA" (from outside the country), confirmed that he provides lessons for students of different curricula, especially the British in mathematics for grades one to ten, and claimed that "the group has become widely spread among parents Things inside the country, as a result of the efforts he is making with the students and enabling them to raise their standards remarkably during the past years,” which helped increase the demand for his services.
He said: "Although I am not a teacher, my passion for mathematics and the experiences I gained from studying architecture, along with my great love and talent for teaching, all prompted me to change my path and work in teaching, something I achieved success that I did not reach during my engineering career." He explained that he lives in an Arab country (outside the Emirates), but the largest number of participants has students from inside the Emirates.
He added: “Today, with the technical progress that has increased use during the (Corona) pandemic, the geographical location is not an obstacle to carrying out jobs or tasks in other countries, which is something that I have benefited from through interactive platforms, where I deal with students and meet with them individually or in a form. Collective during virtual meetings on the Zoom platform,” noting that it allows parents the freedom to determine the mechanism of financial dealing with him, but he always prefers to deal with the quota system of (10 - 30 dollars) per person in group lectures, according to the class, and it becomes (15 - 40 dollars) at a time. Post-exam reviews.
These prices are very close to the price plans of SL, the owner of a page for distance education, stressing that although he works primarily as an accountant for a private sector company, he finds great pleasure in teaching children mathematics to students.
He said: "In the beginning I used to teach with my friends' children, until I became famous and decided to expand and establish a page to organize distance education, especially in mathematics and the Arabic language, where I used one of my distinguished friends in the Arabic language, and we began to interact with students and teach them in much simpler ways than offered in schools, which was accepted by parents.
For her part, Professor of Media and Creative Industries at the UAE University, Dr. Badriya Al-Junaibi, confirmed that advertisements for promoting private lessons should be included in the prohibited content on social media platforms, as they conflict with the public interest, and are not in line with the Internet access management policy that aims to ensure the security of The Internet and protecting users from malicious websites that contain material that contradicts the values and laws of the country.
Al Junaibi said: “The UAE defines prohibited content as any content that is unacceptable, or contrary to the public interest, public morals, public order, national security, or the teachings of the Islamic religion, or is prohibited by any laws, regulations or requirements in force in the country. According to this definition, access to sites and pages that contain prohibited content is blocked by Internet service providers in the country, which should apply to advertisements for private lessons, as they are illegal activities, as well as promotion or trade in a service prohibited by law.
Al-Junaibi called on the Ministry of Education, in cooperation with the Office of Media Regulation, and the Department and Regulation of Media Activities in the UAE, to launch a hotline to report such advertisements, and encourage individuals to interact with it.
Countering tutoring platforms
Head of the Media Department at Al-Khwarizmi International College, Dr. Muhammad Rashad, confirmed that the UAE is one of the few countries in the world that has a strong legal structure to control the space of websites and social media platforms, and create literature and charters for interaction between the users of these platforms, noting that despite the solidity of This legislative structure, however, still collides with a problem afflicting the whole world, which is the difficulty of fully controlling illegal accounts, and the ability of their owners to evade sometimes.
Rashad said: “This matter largely applies to the sites of private lessons and the announced platforms, although according to the provisions of the law, they are among the sites that must be banned, for illegally offering or promoting a good or product, but they are addressed by the official authorities only. It may not be enough, because these accounts have the ability to reappear after closing them, and they have promotional tools that help their spread quickly, and then the solution must be integrated, by strengthening the public role in facing this phenomenon.
He added: "Positive community interaction remains the best solution to facing societal challenges, and therefore addressing the phenomenon of the spread of private lessons and their advertisements on social media is a public responsibility in the first place."
200,000 dirhams as a penalty for practicing teaching with “another profession permit”
Article 60 of Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021 regarding the regulation of labor relations addresses, with punitive measures, individuals who obtain work permits in professions, and then work in other professions different from the one for which the work permit was issued, such as engineers, accountants or others, who promote themselves As private tutors, as this article stipulates that anyone who uses work permits for purposes other than those designated for their issuance shall be penalized with a fine of no less than 50 thousand dirhams and not more than 200 thousand dirhams, which means that the license constitutes a condition for practicing any profession in the country and a non-licensed cannot They may practice this profession in any way.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news