Getting Rid of the Academy Mafia Through Online Education

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by Maheen Tariq

Attending academies is an idea that got tremendous popularity in the past decade. This was not the trend back in the 20th century or even until the 90s. If we ask our parents, they would always say that there was no concept of after-school tuition in their student life. Unfortunately, today there is a general perception that a student cannot get good marks without taking academies.

This has been the reason for parents to blindly spend on their child’s academies. Whether those tutors are clearing the concepts or not that is usually not the concern. Parents simply get satisfied from the fact that their child is getting “extra help to study”.

Due to academies, standards of teaching at schools have dropped with no efforts to fix them

All this has given rise to the Academy Mafia which has plagued our society. We see tuition centers opening in every other street. Such centers exploit both parents and students in the name of ‘quality education’. Whilst in reality, all this is a result of lack of ‘quality education’ in the schools and colleges.

The fast growing academy industry is a living proof that the teachers are unable to deliver their concepts effectively. What is even more painful is that many times teachers deliberately do not clear the students’ concepts so that they are left with no choice but to join their academies in the evening.

All this is very sad. This greed of teachers has corrupted the respectful image of an ‘ustaad’; someone who is given the status equal to a parent in our religion Islam. It is for this reason that the image of a teacher has deteriorated. The greed of teachers has made them lose respect in the eyes of students.

Online education is viable alternative to throwing money to support a broken system,

Teaching has simply become a ‘business’ just like any other. It is very sad, that instead of coming with the idea of building the future generation of Pakistan, the teachers come to schools to make ‘money’.

Hence, all of this has made it essential to devise solutions to get rid of the Academy Mafia that has haunted our society. Our education sector is already bickering in pain. There is a dire need for institutes to come up with solutions to stop this exploitation.

One such example is Sabaq Foundation’s website www.sabaq.pk. It is an online video tutorial website with free video lectures for Pakistani students.  The website  provides tutorials for four main Science subjects i.e. Math, Physics, Chemistry and Biology for Matric, F.Sc and O Level students. The best thing about this website is that all the tutorials have been prepared and sequenced following the exact syllabus of respective Boards i.e. Cambridge, Federal, Punjab, Sindh, KPK and Balochistan.

Sabaq and Maktab are from a new breed of startups aiming to democratize education through the internet

Another examples it that of Maktab.pk. It is quite similar to Sabaq and provides lecture videos for the four science subjects for F.Sc students. So clearly, there are people who recognize the deficiencies of the current state of affairs and are working to resolve them.

With the educational crisis grappling us, nonprofit initiatives like these can be a game changer in our society. Once enough awareness is created about such free educational resources, our children can surely get rid of the hassle and cost of after-school academies. Initiatives like these are a ray of hope for both students and the education sector of Pakistan. Not only this, such online resources also indicate that those times are not to far when Pakistan will also be considered among the countries where the ‘Elearning Revolution’ has made its mark.


  • Good effort although I think Pakistan is not ready for ‘online education’.

    I recently started an online academy to teach people skills (Search for “Academy of Web” on Facebook) but the issue I have noticed that the students are not self motivated and there isn’t a peer learning environment which makes MOOCs all the more exciting.

    Perhaps in the future, yes, but at the moment I think Pakistan is not ready for this.

    • Yes i have also face this. First we need to educate the people and motivate a self learning in them

  • The online education system for Pakistan has to be more interactive. The problem is almost every school teacher is running their own tuition business during off hours and they urged their student to join tuitions for higher grades

  • Its another way to earn. Education should be given only where it is supposed to be.[Schools, Colleges, Universities]. Any other mean for education is just another way to earn money, so I suppose its 3rd mafia going to be active in future.

      • Do you think students need to go online and before that they buy some laptop or some other stuff and spend thousands for internet to avail this service? No, they shouldn’t because the only solution to that is better education system where it belongs, which is, in schools and colleges. Apart from that we are a country that is not fully equipped with modern technologies for online studies and awareness. There need some amendments in education system when it comes to that. I am sure you wont be disappointed then because first we have to give awareness. Its a good step and I appreciate that but its Title that bothers me. Academy Mafia.. You know what I think its another way for publicity of sites and other stuff like Molvies do in the name of Islam….. My only point is that education system if at most perfect then there is no substitute required. In Europe and USA people don’t send their Children for Academies except summer camps and other curricular activities, Y?? Because they pay for their children to learn in School, not after schools.

        • I agree with you. Education system is totally corrupt so these mafias start their businesses

          • Our basic eduaction and fundamental rights are necessary to be provided by Governement.

  • There are more disadvantages of this system rather than advantages. Plus this is not CCNA, CCNP/MCSE level that students will go there and learn on their own. 50% of students don’t know how to use these lectures, plus there is problem of power and concentration with this method.

  • Such online portals are offered as a learning aid for students and are in no way a replacement of schools/teachers. Not to mention that Pakistan is still not ready for ‘online education’, such free sites are created to fill in the gaps left by school lectures so that students do not have to PAY for ACADEMIES.

  • It is nice to see online portals helping students in their studies. If it remains free for all, it would be a great idea. Although these portals are getting revenue through video ads being displayed for 35 seconds, but they should not demand anything from the students.

    We must think why parents prefer to send their wards to academies. In fact these academy mafia have contacts with relevant board members and they pay a huge amount to get better results for the students registered with them. A lot of corruption in the field of education comes through these so-called academies.

  • i have a plan to make state of the art digital academy in my city to tackle this mafia

  • This mafia is hard to tackle because they have roots in our boards from where they get all info for the upcoming exams and made their students according to. There is a need of strong law in this sector to defeat this mafia

  • When I was in class 9th, the biology teacher didn’t teach us a single word – mostly teacher of that school had the same attitude. He also used to say to join my academy, but I didn’t. At that time, I was using a dial up connection, it had enough speed to open Wikipedia and stream Khan Academy videos on Youtube at low quality. I learned all of my subject through the internet and I was extremely happy when I got 468/525 in the FBISE. Now, I have shifted to APS College, it has a fantastic staff. Nowadays, I use Telenor 3G for this purpose, that’s why, I don’t go any academy. I prefer not to join academies because It wastes money as well as time.


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