Is Private Tutoring Worth the Money?
You may one among those who think private tutoring is really helpful to help your child realize their full potential in its best way. But how worth is private tutoring! This article describes the value of hiring a tutor or taking admission at a private tuition centre.
More and more parents hire a private tutor for their children. You see one tutor knocking on your neighbour's door every Saturday afternoon for a session with their son. You receive a pamphlet in your mailbox about the tutoring centre, which also offers private tutoring. Your sister complained about the phone about her daughter's grade in school and told you she's planning to hire a tutor. You start questioning yourself, should you do it too?
However, hiring a tutor isn't like buying a thing. First, their service is quite pricey. Second, you know it's not a one-time-buy, because to make the tutoring effective, your children should have it regularly for several months, preferably even the whole semester. Why is it so expensive anyway? Is private tutoring even worth the money?
In this article, we're going to discuss whether private tutoring really offers something valuable for your children compared to the dollar you pay. Is the relatively high price justifiable, or it's just another unnecessary luxury?Who set the price anyway?
Price is always determined by demand and supply. In the modern world, where people understand that the best investment is education, where a graduate student isn't as rare as before, demand for private tutoring is pretty high. Parents want to give their children the opportunity and advantage that will help them win in the future. Students themselves realize how tight the competition to be at the top of the class is, and want to get help to be there. When demand is high, then, of course, the price will go higher.
Thankfully, from the supply side, private tutors are also abundant. There is no real barrier to be a tutor, except the proof that you understand what you're teaching about, and the proof doesn't even need to be printed or formal. For example, many college students offer their tutoring services for underclassmen. They may not have their bachelor's degree yet, but the underclassman knows they understand the subject well because they've learned it before.
This balances the market price of private tutoring. While demand is high, supply is also high, so you may think that the price you get, for now, is the best price you can get. Especially, because the private tutoring market is a free market. How do we determine if private tutoring is worth it?
First, let's look at what determines the worthiness of private tutoring. After all, tutoring offers education, and there is already an institution providing that for our children: school. Is tutoring really different from school? Does tutoring offer something that the school doesn't?
Many parents still doubt whether they need to give their children private tutoring because surely school is enough? The parents were usually only school-educated as well, and they could still succeed in life. Why should they pay more for education when they already pay for that at school? Another reason why parents don't want to hire a private tutor is that they're afraid they'll push and put pressure on their children.
Some parents who believe in private tutoring, however, can agree that there is indeed a big difference between tutoring and school (not counting the price, of course). In private tutoring, their children can get full attention from the teacher, allowing them to understand the concept better and at a faster rate. Tutoring means the children can improve their grades at school.
Not only that, a private tutor can tailor their module to suit your children's necessity, so they can get their weaknesses covered and their strengths strengthened. This can lead to an increase in your children's confidence in studying. If they previously hate studying because they feel like they can't understand anything, they feel stupid while studying, a burst of confidence can turn this hatred into the spirit to study more.
So, is private tutoring worth it?
If we're talking about the benefits of tutoring for children, then yes, it's worth it. Cheap doesn't always mean bad, expensive doesn't always mean good
We often hear that price means quality, but in tutoring, that's not always the case. Because tutoring is quite a free market, everybody can choose their rate per hour, regardless of their background education, or experience. There is no pricing rule that separates the tutors into several tiers based on their ability, then sets the pricing range for each tier.
That's why even a mediocre tutor may ask for a hefty sum per hour. You can screen some of these tutors by looking at their resumes. See if that tutor really has the experience and qualification to teach that match the price they ask. However, you can't easily see this candidate's teaching ability and passion from the resume, so always keep in mind that finding a tutor, expensive which doesn't always mean good.
However, it also means that cheap isn't always bad. In fact, you can even find a good tutor at reasonable prices as well. So, while the rate should be one of your criteria in finding a tutor, it shouldn't be the determining factor. If you can find a tutor that can offer more value than the rate she is asking, would you really want to let her go? Also, the more reputable tuition agencies list down the tuition rates on their website, that way it's easier to avoid being scammed.
In the end, we can't deny that tutoring does have benefits for the students. What students can get from tutoring is very different from what they can get from school, and this may give different results as well. Of course, this is mostly true only if the tutor is competent. So, private tutoring does worth the money, but only if you can screen and select the candidates carefully.
There are many places and many ways to find a tutor, but make sure to choose them only from the best pool of candidates. Visiting your town university and finding tutoring advertisements from the student there, is one of the best ways. If it's too time-consuming for you, finding a tutor online is both practical and easy. You can immediately see the candidate's resume and interview him or her online. You can negotiate for one session first, and see if you want to continue with him or her later.
So, would you hire a private tutor?
What I feel that private tuition is the mere waste exercise as the parent thinks that the child would be gaining new knowledge or improving the school teachings. But what I could gather from my personal experience that the tutor would just refer what the child is taught in the school. That means repetition of what taught in the school and thus the child is wasting time and not gathering any new knowledge. Instead the parents should take interest and teach the doubts if any and also carry on the revision once the child comes home from the schools. As a working parent some may not have the time, but they can revise the portions during the weekend holidays and make the child remember what ever he was forgotten. That way the tuition may be avoided and the parent - child connect would further improve to the new levels.