Here’s the drill

Although it’s the largest tutorial center in the country, MSA Academic Advancement Institute is not strictly a pesos-and-centavos business.

"If the student can only afford one hour of tutoring but his teacher feels that he needs more drills to master the subject, we don’t charge for the extra minutes," said MSA founder and academic program director Merle Alferez.

"If a student reports early but he is not being taught, then we also don’t charge. Our policy is no teach, no pay."

MSA-AAI is considered a pioneer in an industry that has been growing by a stupendous 50% a year, faster than the 2.3% annual growth in the country’s population. In part, the industry’s growth, particularly in Metro Manila, could be traced to the increasing number of double-income families where both parents do not have the time and energy after work to go over the lessons of their children for the next day. In part, the growth could be traced to a funneling educational system where there are so many children trying to get into a few good schools. As a result, children as young as four years old must be prepared to take the competitive entrance exams for the kindergarten class.

These days, tutorials are also no longer limited to average or below average students who need all the help they can get to pass to the next grade level. "We’re seeing more students who are vying for first honors or who want to be the valedictorian. They enroll with us during the summer for the math, science and English subjects that they will be taking when they return to school," said Alferez. Armed with such an edge, these students perform better that their classmates who are just learning the subject matter being taught.

Self-Confidence

At MSA-AAI, the bulk of tutorials, however, are high school students who have difficulty with algebra, geometry, trigonometry and, in some cases, calculus. It has been that way for the past 15 years.

MSA-AAI started out as a single proprietorship in 1987. "I resigned as a math teacher in an exclusive school to spend more time with my only child, Gerald. Two months after, I couldn’t stand the boredom and put up a ‘math tutor’ sign outside my home," said Alferez.

Her first client was an Atenean who just got a failing math grade of 65%. Charging P50 an hour, Alferez worked with the student for the next quarter, resulting in the student getting a grade of 87%.

Within six months, MSA-AAI had 20 students and one owner cum teacher. After school hours in the mid-afternoon, Alferez would tutor students in different elementary and secondary school levels. One student would be given exercises to do while Alferez would explain a math theorem to another student. College students would be asked to come in the evenings. In one case, a college student asked Alferez to tutor him at five in the morning, less than three hours before his exam.

"In most cases, the low grade in math can be traced to a psychological fear of numbers. Everybody says math is hard, so the student immediately approaches mathas a hard subject," said Alferez, who tries to make math fun by making the numbers come alive through stories and their practical applications. "Once the mental block is removed, the student is able to understand the process. Every time he gets the right answer, his self-confidence grows."

Achievements

Today, Alferez’s son is managing director of MSA-AAI. Her home cum tutorial center along Katipunan Ave. has since been transformed into the MSA-AAI Bldg., the head office of six branches, all in Metro Manila.

MSA-AAI has 25 full-time teachers, all of whom have had teaching experience in exclusive private schools. "We don’t have part-time teachers because we want the teachers to be here at whatever hour the student is free," said Alferez.

Since morning is normally dead time, teachers report for their daily eight-hour working day on a staggered basis and start the day by studying or preparing their lesson plans. Each teacher can handle five students at a time although the average is three. "We want kids to learn how to be independent. We don’t do their homework for them. We explain and we give more drills for mastery," she said.

Although it can charge five times the regular man-hour for one-on-one sessions, MSA-AAI discourages such sessions because it fosters the student’s dependence on the teacher. "We don’t want students to stay long with us. The shorter their stay with us, the better for us because we know we’ve done our job and the better for the student because he now understands the subject and can study on his own," she said.

Expansion

Because they are not considered formal schools, tutorial centers are not supervised by the Department of Education. It is, however, supervised as businesses, either by the Department of Trade and Industry, which monitors single proprietorships, or the Securities and Exchange Commission, which monitors corporations. MSA-AAI has been registered with the SEC since its incorporation in 1998.

In the near term, MSA-AAI intends to go into tutorial joint ventures with its teachers who show an entrepreneurial bent. The company will put up the money for the infrastructure and the teacher will be the industrial partner. Profits will be shared between the partners.

"This is a better way for us to expand than franchising, which must be run like a business with no flexibilities or deviations to succeed," said Alferez. "By working with our teachers, we will be sure that our way of thinking and our way of doing things will continue. We will also be repaying the loyalty and hard work of our teachers by giving them a chance to earn enough to send their future children to any school in the Philippines and to own their own homes."

Merle Alferez’s and, as an extension, MSA-AAI’s way of thinking is exemplified in its refusal to get involved in college entrance exams leakages. For Alferez, it is better for all her students to fail the entrance exam than to pass because they were fed the answers. At the end of the day, MSA-AAI is all about building self-esteem rather than creating geniuses.