Does Instruction ability give characters a chance to improve their abilities without spending experience?

Question

I recently found out about the Instruction Ability that reads as:

This talent represents a character’s knack for imparting information. Possessed by teachers, sect leaders or others in educative positions, this skill allows a character to teach other characters the Skills and Knowledges they possess, though only to the level you possess – i.e. you cannot teach Science 4 if you only possess Science 3. For each month of instruction, roll Manipulation + Instruction; the number of successes rolled is the amount of Experience the pupil may apply towards the relevant trait. With storyteller’s approval, certain Talents such as Brawl or Dodge may also be imparted this way – However, talents such as Empathy or Alertness must be learned the “hard” way. The prerequisite of the talent is that a character must possess skills and knowledge to share in the first place.

And I am confused about the wording of "the number of successes rolled is the amount of Experience the pupil may apply towards the relevant trait. " Would this skill allow someone to avoid spending experience in order to improve an ability or does it simply provide narrative justification for spending experience?

Answer 1

Instruction did function as you describe — the number of successes rolled by the "teacher" after a month of lessons could reduce the total experience points needed to buy the next dot of an appropriate Skill or Knowledge (and the occasional talent). However, Instruction is a Secondary Ability — which means that taking it requires Storyteller approval (well, moreso than anything else) and it hasn't appeared since the 1st Edition books. It's an obscurity now, and even the 20th Anniversary codices don't include it. I wouldn't expect to be able to take it.