<p>Although fee-paying shadow schooling has recently drawn attention in many countries, it brings up important issues including seasonal tutoring, societal concerns, and differences in rural areas. Using an explanatory sequential mixed methods design, the study collected quantitative and qualitative data through a survey of 448 participants, involving students and parents, and individual interviews of 24 participants, including students, parents and teachers. The study focuses on societal concerns of shadow schooling in rural Bangladesh, such as the availability of fee-based tutoring services, ethnic minorities, parental qualifications, and family economic capability. In a rural location, it also shows the differences in hours of private tutoring by term or season. The article argues that minority and majority, educated and uneducated, and low-income and high-income groups have dissimilar access to fee-charging private tutoring. Conceptually, societal perspectives, seasonal tutoring, and inequalities draw implications in rural education, societal equity aspects, and policymaking.</p>