| Private tuition has entered the national conversation. | | | | witness impassioned class debate and the clashing of |
| For long a rather mysterious operation, the media has | | | | young minds, even amongst the brightest. What |
| woken up to its rapid growth - especially after the | | | | classroom teaching does offer, though, especially in |
| Sutton Trust showed that 43% of children nationally | | | | subjects like English, History and R.S are classes that |
| had received private tuition. This openness in the | | | | arrive at richer or more correct answers together - |
| media is both symptom and cause of a similar | | | | building on each other's mistakes. That's lost in tuition. |
| openness amongst parents. No longer a whispered | | | | The classroom experience also develops other |
| secret, recommendations and warnings about certain | | | | important skills: the ability to concentrate, for |
| tutors and agencies are now regularly swapped | | | | instance, WITHOUT someone constantly watching |
| outside the school gates. | | | | over you, the ability to wait one's turn. |
| Regrettably, this openness has led to very little | | | | There are other dangers too. If they're not careful, |
| debate on the merits and demerits of tuition - or | | | | tutors can become crutches for their charges/tutees |
| much analysis as to why parents are seeking it in | | | | so that students never learn the crucial experience of |
| such droves. Some commentators have seen in | | | | being baffled, and of working things out on their own. |
| tuition a desire to recapture the cosy world of | | | | Of greater concern, a tutor who is not in touch with |
| governesses and nurseries. Others have reached, | | | | the class teachers can tie confused students up in |
| inevitably, for the recession as a possible explanation | | | | knots with different methodologies or conflicting |
| - either that a place in a good school is even more | | | | comments about the school. It is no wonder that |
| essential in the long march to the | | | | there used to be something of an impasse between |
| furiously-competitive job market, or that tuition is | | | | schools and tutors, when children would return to |
| parents' compensation for choosing state education. | | | | school with accusatory comments: "my tutor tells me |
| Where are the considerations of its impact on | | | | that you shouldn't mark work like this!" |
| learning, or the larger questions posed by its rise? | | | | The debate about schooling itself would be so |
| So: do children (or some children) learn better as a | | | | enriched by some more examination of these issues. |
| result of a one-on-one tutoring? What sort of | | | | If there is a consensus, say, that basic numeracy is |
| learning goes on one-on-one? The answer is that you | | | | far better taught 1-on-1, let's be bold and say so. |
| can regulate the learning in a very specific way: | | | | Then the debate can continue: we (as parents, |
| whether you're looking for focused troubleshooting | | | | schools, LEAs, governments) can't afford 1-on-1, it |
| (fractions, decimals) - or a deeper exploration ("why | | | | might be argued, in which case school learning should |
| do we have cases in Latin?"), the form is flexible to | | | | be understood as an economic compromise. Or it |
| the content. The former is the most popular, and | | | | might be said that, regardless of the efficacy of |
| areas of misunderstanding (sometimes layered up | | | | 1-on-1, sheer learning is not as much of a priority as |
| over years of confusion) can be quickly unblocked | | | | concentration, waiting one's turn, getting on with |
| with a good tutor. For some subjects and topics in | | | | others - in which case, could we be more creative |
| particular, such as Maths and Languages, this creates | | | | with school timetables, staffing, bringing in help from |
| something of a delicious learning environment. There's | | | | outside the school? One last one: what does it say |
| no hiding in tuition, no slouching at the back of the | | | | about schooling that some tutors can repeat |
| class hoping that you wont be asked a question. | | | | word-for-word the advice of teachers/parents but |
| Many parents talk about the benefits tuition delivers | | | | that something about the delivery, tone and |
| for self-esteem. It is not difficult to see why, when | | | | atmosphere of a tutorial makes it sink in? |
| students are given the opportunity to learn in an | | | | Given the Conservatives have put at the centre of |
| environment where questions can be unlimited - and | | | | their education policy a return to "chalk-and-talk" |
| where it is okay to be wrong. | | | | traditional classroom teaching, these issues make |
| What is lost here? For one, certain subjects are | | | | fertile discussion indeed. Tutoring rarely provides all |
| assuredly enriched by class learning. Let us not be | | | | the answers, but the questions it poses feel |
| dewy-eyed: friends of mine who have taught for 40 | | | | particularly relevant, if not urgent, at the moment. |
| years or more have described how rare it is to | | | | |