We once walked the same familiar paths to schools and universities, and saw our children walk them too. The path seemed unbroken, though marked by small changes. But today the journey is different. I see my son, and the children of many I know, taking a new and advanced path—one found elsewhere, but not yet here. We now live in the age of digital educational intelligence. Our children no longer tread the same ground we did. Innovation has broken down walls and shifted education into a new dimension—the intelligent digital path.
Nations have joined hands to exchange technology, deploying it across every field and sector. Education received the lion’s share of this transformation. Many countries broke free from the walls of traditional schooling and its rigid structures, embracing digital and smart education instead. E-learning and distance education became not temporary fixes but permanent modes of instruction. These nations faced crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, not by retreating but by raising the banner of progress—continuing to develop, refusing to stop.
They moved from “experiment” to full adoption. What once was a trial has become their reality: a sustainable, intelligent digital path for learning—and for life.
By contrast, when we entered the so-called “digital education experiment” (and note, we still call it an experiment—how ironic!), many exploited it for the worst purposes. They chased after material gain, losing sight of the true goal of e-learning. Opportunists emerged, hiding behind the walls of illegitimate practice. Instead of documenting and building a genuine, effective model of digital learning, we documented the rise of private tutoring—ready to “rescue” struggling students, or rather, those labeled as such before they even had the chance to adapt.
What about safety rules, distancing measures, and all the protocols imposed on us by COVID-19? While online learning was meant to protect students, private tutoring marched straight into our homes under the excuse that distance learning was “failing.” Private tutors posed as “rescue teams,” offering salvation to students unwilling to focus, and to parents desperate about their children’s future.
If we think carefully, this is nothing less than a wide campaign to sabotage digital education and drag us back behind the old walls of traditional schooling. The aim: to bring smart digital learning to the ground. Instead of nitpicking its early mistakes, we should unite to build strong, lasting infrastructure and a forward-looking digital mindset.
Private tutoring is not the solution parents imagine. Instead of clinging to it, let us engage with digital learning fully—treating it as a compulsory path, just like compulsory schooling. Let us reject the backwardness that still delays us and embrace the promise of smart digital education. For it is the true future of our children.
The state must strike firmly against those exploiting education, families, and circumstances—those imposing the tax of private tutoring. Let us build a society marked by intelligence, stamped with the seal of digital education.
