Giving your child a quality education is important. Few parents would disagree with that statement. How to give children that quality education, however, is a subject of debate among many parents and educators. Parents with the disposable income to manage it often find themselves paying for private school, then shuttling their kids straight to private tutors at the end of the day. The question is, is private tutoring really a luxury, or does it penalize students whose parents have the disposable income to make it a possibility for them? To answer this question we looked at many factors including different households, schools and private tutoring companies such as INICIO in Market Harborough, Leicestershire (UK).
Private tutoring puts a lot of pressure on kids.
Kids spend all day at school. They have to be on their best behaviour and focused on academic tasks all day. When they get home, students deserve the opportunity to sit back, relax, and enjoy themselves instead of being plunged into more academic work. Whether your child best unwinds by spending time outside or by coming home and participating in a quiet activity, they deserve time to simply be young.
Private tutoring is very expensive.
There are many other things that could be funded using the same money that would be spent on private tutors. Over the years of a child’s education, that money could really add up. Invested wisely, it could pay for a college education, a down payment on a house, and more. Many parents consider the money spent on the child’s education to be a wise investment, but in many cases, alternative uses for that money might be a better investment for the child’s future.
In addition, private tutoring creates an unfair situation for both the children who are forced to endure it and those who are unable to afford it. While a child who is in need of additional help in order to succeed should certainly receive it, there’s a fine line between a student who needs extra help and a student whose parents are so determined to see them succeed that they push them too hard. For students who don’t actually need the additional help, tutors can be nothing more than a frustrating necessity that will suck away their love of learning and leave them feeling unfulfilled.
Private tutoring doesn’t have that strong a benefit for kids who already strong learners.
For students who already have high odds of academic success, private tutors might not make that much of a difference. Students who personally have the drive and motivation necessary to succeed are already pushing themselves to the utmost, and a private tutor is unlikely to make a significant difference in their odds of success.
In general, private tutors are more appropriate for students who truly need them: those who are having trouble with a particular subject in school, or who have missed enough school to need time to catch up. For others, private tutors might just be doing more harm than good. That means that parents need to seriously rethink where they’re directing their educational dollars for their children and what the ultimate benefit of those choices could be.
