For many families, board-exam preparation has become almost synonymous with tuition. A student attends school during the day, tuition classes in the evening, and spends weekends completing additional worksheets and tests. For parents, this can mean a significant financial burden. For students, it can mean long hours, less free time and sometimes an overwhelming amount of study material.
But education has changed dramatically.
A student with a smartphone, internet connection and the right learning habits can now access explanations, lectures, practice questions, digital notes, mock tests and even an AI-powered study assistant at little or no cost. YouTube can explain a difficult concept in several different ways. ChatGPT can help break down complicated topics and create personalised quizzes. Free educational platforms can provide structured practice, while previous-year papers can help students understand the real examination pattern.
This does not mean teachers are no longer important. They are. Technology cannot completely replace the encouragement, judgement and personal understanding of a good teacher. But it can reduce the need to pay for tuition simply because a student needs another explanation or more practice.
The real opportunity is to move from expensive learning to smarter learning.
“The best classroom is not always the most expensive one; sometimes, it is the one you know how to use.”
The New Classroom
The traditional classroom has one major limitation: everyone generally learns at the same pace. A teacher may explain a topic once and then move forward. A student who understands it quickly may become bored, while another student who needs more time may fall behind.
Digital learning changes this equation.
A student can pause a video, rewind it, slow it down, search for another explanation and revisit the same concept the next day. This flexibility is particularly useful for board-exam preparation, where students often struggle with different topics at different times.
The OECD’s PISA 2022 research provides an important insight. Across OECD countries, students who spent up to one hour per day using digital devices for learning activities at school scored 14 points higher in mathematics, on average, than students who spent no time on such activities, even after accounting for student and school characteristics. However, the same research also warns that excessive or distracting technology use can be associated with poorer outcomes.
That distinction is crucial.
Technology itself does not make a student smarter. Purposeful use of technology can make learning more effective.
A smartphone used for two hours of focused learning is very different from a smartphone used for two hours of scrolling.
The student therefore needs to become the manager of technology rather than its consumer.
ChatGPT as a Study Partner
One of the biggest changes in education is the arrival of generative AI. A tool such as ChatGPT can act like a study partner that is available whenever a student has a question.
Imagine a Class 10 student studying electricity in Physics. The textbook explanation may feel complicated. Instead of immediately joining another tuition class, the student can ask ChatGPT to explain the concept in simple language, give an everyday example and then test their understanding with five questions.
The same approach can work across subjects. A student can ask for a difficult history topic to be explained as a timeline, request simpler explanations of economic concepts, practise grammar, generate mathematics problems or revise scientific definitions.
The most important point is how the student asks the question.
Asking, “Give me the answer” encourages dependence. Asking, “Explain why this is the answer and then give me a similar question to solve myself” encourages learning.
Students can also use AI for active revision. After completing a chapter, they can ask the tool to quiz them one question at a time. If they answer incorrectly, they can ask for an explanation and then try another question.
However, AI should never be treated as the final authority. It can produce incorrect or incomplete information. Students should verify important facts, formulas, definitions and examination requirements against their textbook, teacher’s guidance and reliable sources.
The purpose of AI is not to do the student’s homework.
Its greatest value is helping the student understand what they are doing.
YouTube and Free Learning Platforms
YouTube has effectively created a massive collection of free classrooms. A student struggling with trigonometry, chemical equations, accounting, grammar or a historical event can often find multiple teachers explaining the same topic differently.
This is especially valuable because students do not all learn in the same way.
One teacher may explain a concept using diagrams. Another may use examples. A third may solve ten questions step by step. The student can choose the explanation that makes the topic easiest to understand.
A 2026 study published in PNAS analysed data from more than 200,000 students to examine the relationship between classroom use of computer-assisted learning through Khan Academy and mathematics outcomes. The large sample allowed researchers to study the role of technology-supported practice across a substantial number of students and educational settings.
The study provides evidence that structured, technology-assisted practice can contribute to meaningful academic outcomes when it is integrated into regular classroom learning. This suggests that digital learning platforms can be valuable not simply as sources of information, but as tools that support consistent practice and reinforce classroom instruction.
These findings do not prove that every student can replace every teacher with an app. They show something more practical: well-designed digital practice can become a valuable part of learning.
But there is a major danger with YouTube and the internet—distraction.
A student may start with a mathematics lesson and twenty minutes later be watching entertainment videos. Therefore, digital study requires discipline. Search for the specific lesson, watch it actively, take notes, practise the concept and move away from the screen.
Watching ten educational videos is not necessarily learning.
Being able to solve the problem after watching one good explanation is learning.
Build Your Own Study System
The biggest mistake students can make is collecting too many resources.
They download hundreds of PDFs, subscribe to multiple channels, save dozens of videos and install several study applications. Eventually, they spend more time organising resources than actually studying.
A better approach is to build a simple personal study system.
Start with the prescribed textbook and syllabus. Read the chapter carefully and identify what you do not understand. Use YouTube or another reliable educational resource for explanation. Use ChatGPT when you need concepts simplified, examples created or questions generated. Then return to the textbook and solve the questions yourself.
After that, practise additional questions and previous-year examination papers.
One particularly powerful habit is maintaining a digital or physical mistake notebook.
Whenever you get a question wrong, record why. Perhaps you forgot a formula. Maybe you misunderstood the question. Perhaps your calculation was wrong or your answer lacked an important point.
Before the examination, this collection of mistakes becomes a personalised revision guide.
It tells you exactly where you are losing marks.
This approach can also reduce unnecessary tuition. A student may discover that the problem is not a lack of teaching but a lack of practice. Another student may discover that only one chapter needs additional help. Instead of paying for months of broad tuition, the student can seek targeted assistance.
The goal should not be to eliminate every teacher.
The goal should be to pay for help only where help is actually needed.
Technology Needs Discipline
Free tools create opportunity, but they also create temptation.
The OECD’s research shows that students are generally comfortable using digital technology, but being comfortable with technology does not automatically mean being good at independent learning. Across OECD countries, roughly three out of four students reported confidence in using digital learning systems and finding learning resources online, while only around six out of ten reported equal confidence in motivating themselves and concentrating on schoolwork without reminders.
This is one of the most important lessons for students.
The biggest challenge may not be finding information.
It may be controlling yourself after finding it.
A student should therefore create rules for digital study. Notifications should be turned off during study sessions. Social media should not be open beside the textbook. YouTube should be used for specific lessons rather than random browsing. AI should be used to understand and practise rather than copy.
Technology should make concentration easier, not harder.
Parents can help by focusing less on how many hours their child spends in tuition and more on whether the child is actually learning. A student who spends three hours in tuition but cannot explain the chapter independently may need a different approach. Another student who spends ninety focused minutes studying, practising and correcting mistakes may be making much better progress.
The Teacher Is Still Important
The idea of replacing expensive tuition with free technology should not become the idea of replacing teachers altogether.
Good teachers provide something technology cannot easily reproduce: human judgement.
A teacher can notice that a student is anxious, confused or repeatedly making the same conceptual mistake. A teacher can understand the student’s background, adapt an explanation and provide encouragement when motivation falls.
The OECD also found that teacher support matters strongly. In PISA 2022, students who reported good access to teacher help had mathematics scores that were, on average, 15 points higher than those who did not report the same level of access, after accounting for the relevant factors examined in the report.
So the future is not necessarily teacher versus technology.
It is teacher plus technology.
A student can use school teachers for guidance and difficult questions while using free digital tools for explanation, repetition, revision and practice. This combination can be much more powerful than simply adding more tuition hours.
The most important transformation is that students can become active participants in their education.
The Real Tuition Is Learning How to Learn
The biggest advantage of modern education technology is not that it makes everything free. It gives students something even more valuable: choice.
A student can choose when to learn, which explanation to watch, how many times to repeat a difficult concept, which questions to practise and which mistakes to correct.
This creates a completely different learning environment.
A student preparing for board examinations could begin with the textbook, use YouTube when a concept is unclear, use ChatGPT as an interactive study partner, practise through free educational platforms, solve previous-year papers and maintain a mistake notebook—all without automatically enrolling in several expensive tuition programmes.
Of course, not every student will succeed simply because free tools are available. Technology cannot replace hard work, revision, sleep, discipline or examination practice. And students who have serious learning gaps may still benefit greatly from a good teacher or tutor.
But the old assumption that more money spent on tuition automatically means better education deserves to be questioned.
The next generation of successful students may not be the ones surrounded by the most expensive books, tutors and coaching classes.
They may be the ones who know how to use a textbook, a search engine, a video, an AI assistant and their own mistakes to keep improving.
Because the greatest educational advantage today is no longer access to information.
It is knowing what to do with it.
And once a student learns that skill, the classroom does not end when school closes. The entire world becomes a classroom.
