SHADOW EDUCATION IN MALAYSIA AFTER THE PANDEMIC: A QUALITATIVE STUDY FROM PERSPECTIVES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS, PARENTS, TEACHERS AND PRIVATE TUTORS

The COVID-19 pandemic has primarily changed educational systems worldwide, introducing a new hybrid learning mode. In Malaysia, shadow education— private tutoring offered an outside support system to the formal school system for the students increasing their academic achievements. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of 7 secondary school students and 5 numbers of each parent, schoolteachers and private tutors on shadow education in Malaysia after the pandemic using a semi-structured interview. The number of participants were determined by saturated data obtained and they were chosen using purposive sampling method. Then, the data was analyzed using Braun and Clarke thematic analysis. This research aims to understand the impacts of the pandemic on the underlying forces of shadow education, the challenges encountered, and the potential future trends. Overall, in Malaysian context, secondary school students and parents agreed that shadow education able to help the student’s academic performance based on their personalized attention, flexibility learning opportunities, personality, innovative and creativity of the private tutors. Schoolteachers also admit the importance of shadow education based on the enhanced achievement of the students attending shadow education, but other elements need to be improved such as internet coverage and efficiency.