In my role as Director of one of Australia’s largest one-to-one home tutoring agencies I am often asked the question; “why do people source private tutoring?”
Not so many years ago the answer would have been very simple; the student is not keeping up and needs remedial attention. Times have changed and the tuition industry has grown to reflect that, now one of the great myths about tutoring is that it is still all about remedial students. This is not so. The reasons why parents (and schools, government agencies, sports groups, businesses and hospitals to name a few other key stakeholders) now source tutoring are many and varied. What we can say for certain is that now parents are using a range of motivations when sourcing tutoring and that parents of academically able students, who seek to capitalise on their abilities, are just as likely to source external tuition as those requiring remedial assistance.
The Australian bureau of statistics conducts a survey of household expenditure every five years. The data collected does have some limitations but it can be used to produce a reasonably reliable estimate on spending on fees for private tutoring. The surveys from 1998-99 and 2003-04 reveal an average increase in spending on private tuition of some 65%. Anecdotal industry feedback suggests that this increase has continued. The industry is growing and growing strongly! What are the drivers to this increase? What are the reasons why parents are increasingly sourcing tutoring? The answers below are not definitive or complete but do offer a window into some of the direction that we receive from clients when they source their tutor.
Learning difficulties
Tutoring is used to alleviate learning difficulties. A failure to understand or an inability to comprehend will lead students to lose confidence and can have a snowballing effect on attitudes to learning. The extra attention, in a non threatening environment, that tutoring provides can help at risk students. Tutoring for remedial purposes has been the historical key driver of the industry.
The desire to succeed
What is increasingly obvious is that the motivation to source tutoring is now also being driven by a desire to excel in addition to the traditional need for remedial support.
We live in a very competitive age; an outstanding academic result can enable a student to enter a desired course of study or access their career of choice. Parents and students will source every advantage they can to assist in their pursuit of a goal. Tutoring can offer an additional instrument to assist this highly motivated and capable student.
Competition and exams
Any time that a competitive exam situation is introduced into an educational environment it encourages a demand for tutoring. This is apparent across all class or age groups and across all countries where surveys have been conducted. Effectively a student who receives tutoring receives a competitive advantage in their pursuit of an enhanced exam. What is also apparent is that the greater the “stakes” associated with the exam the greater the likelihood that tutoring will be sourced. There is anecdotal evidence that nearly three quarters of all year 12 students received some form of tutoring for their final exams in NSW.
Entry by selection has been part of some non-government schools for a long time. In Australia at least NSW, Victoria and Western Australia, in the government school systems, provide for Selective Schools. These are campuses set aside for high achieving students. Places in these schools are difficult to come by and the exams that need to be successfully completed to gain entry are highly competitive. For example in 2010 there were just over 3000 places in NSW selective schools. Over 14000 students sat the exams required for entry.
Disposable income
The survey on household expenditures also reveals that household wealth clearly influences the level of expenditure on private tutoring. The survey showed that the wealthiest households spent double the amount on private tutoring in 2003-04 than the average Australian household. There may be an element of the “luxury item” associated with tutoring in certain cases, i.e. we get it because it adds value and we can afford it.
A balanced life
Some students are focussed on sporting, artistic or musical pursuits that can deprive them of time that would otherwise have been spent studying. Tutoring can help these students to maintain a balanced approach to success. Studies do not have to be sacrificed for the success pursued in other fields if the right assistance can be offered. This would normally fall outside the commitment a normal school could make to a student.
Outsourcing
Families and students in the modern world are increasingly time poor. There are now far more families in which both parents work than was the case in the recent past. This can create stresses in a family context that can be relieved through the engagement of a tutor. No longer does a parent have travel home from work, often in peak hour traffic, prepare dinners and possibly tomorrow’s school lunches and then sit down and assist with homework. At times it can be too much. Outsourcing of the tutoring can help the family time be just that – family time, and not what could otherwise be a time of stress and friction. This is more often the case when a student is having trouble organising their study time or is avoiding homework to the point that it has become a problem for the parent.
A gap in learning
There is any number of reasons why a student could miss part of a course delivered at school. Sickness, a trip overseas or a representative sporting commitment can all provide reasons why parts of a school course do not get covered completely. Through no fault, good students can find gaps have appeared in their learning. Unfortunately teachers are not always in a position to devote the individual time to diagnose and remedy a student who has these gaps. Tutoring offers an obvious alternative here.
A change in environment
Geographic movement between different schools, different states or internationally will create issues for students. Educational is delivered by the states in Australia and even though there has been a recent push for a national curriculum in some subjects it is still a long way from completion. We therefore find that students who relocate from one state to another have significant issues with changes in the timing and way certain content is delivered. This can be just as apparent in changes from a public to private school or vice versa. A student will need to cope with differing approaches, explanations and or content. A good tutor can assist in bridging course work or extending students who are placed in new environments that differ in level from their previous environment.
Access to an educator
Most parents have very little direct contact with their child’s teacher, the older the child the more this becomes the case. Our agency often hears the story of the surprise a parent got when they received their end of term report indicating that their child had struggled. Often there is no communication of this from the school before the report. Teachers have the capacity to allocate about 15 minutes for a parent teacher interview, usually once a term at most. Other than reports and parent/teacher interviews there is really very little opportunity for direct communication between a parent and a child’s teacher. Having regular tuition gives a parent access to and direct feedback from, an educator who can offer current and ongoing advice as to where the student’s progress lies. This is one of the more highly valued aspects of tutoring that is largely unappreciated by those not familiar to the industry.
Public versus private
Spending on tutoring can also be influenced or related to spending on private school fees. Some households make a trade-off between spending on a private school and spending on a private tutor. That is a parent who is unhappy with their public or private school may make the choice to spend on a tutor in place of the large upfront spend required on a private school.
Summary
The tutoring industry in Australia is growing and growing strongly. This increase in demand for our services is not being driven alone by the traditional motivator for tuition; remedial help, although this remains as one of the key triggers. What we are finding is that there is a whole range of reasons that parents and students are now sourcing tutoring. The industry is providing a valuable and well recognised service to the community. Tutors now no longer expect to be tutoring students who are struggling exclusively. Each of the above reasons provides a credible base for a parent to be motivated to source and continue to use a tutoring service. Now when asked; “why tutoring?” I take a breath and reply “It’s not a simple as you’d think, how much time do you have?”
Chris Druett, Director of Tutoring For Excellence and former chairman of the Australian Tutoring Association.