Our modern generation knows for sure what it means to pay for education from your own pocket. Nowadays many students use the idea of earning money teaching younger students. Can we call it deriving benefit from the students' desire to achieve or is it just youth uneployment that urges students to take this pass?
As the term goes on and student loans cease, the idea of tutoring is becoming more and more attractive. Teaching a student for one hour can bring up to £40 – higher than you may get being a waitress in a local cafe. Moreover, it's a great pleasure to help somebody learn the subject you are interested in.
Private tuition industry has not been influenced by recession. As the figues show, the proportion of young people receiving home tutoring from students has increased up to 23% while this figue is London is even higher – 38%.
Peter Edwards, from Blue Tutors: "We take on a lot of students. Quite a significant number are recent graduates who tend to work for a year while they're studying for a masters, or doing their law-conversion course. Students have obtained their qualifications more recently than experienced tutors, and they tend to empathise with students – there are no language barriers."
The question is: does private tutoring widen the social divide? A gulf in a number of rich and poor students applying to university may widen due to higher proportion of tutoring. Private tutoring is available for wealthy teeanages mostly. Almost 25% of students from affluent homes take private clasess in comparison to 15% of those from poorer families.
Dr Lee Elliot Major, director of research at the Sutton Trust, said: "There's a social mobility arms race – and in recent years the battleground has gone beyond the school gates. It's not just which school you send your children to, it's how much private tuition you are doing over and above that.
Students working for Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), giving private tutoring, are paid between £10 and £15 per hour. However, there is a requirement – they should work one hour of free for every six hours of paid work.
But can a student explain a comlex idea when the qualified tutor can not? If private tutoring grows very fast, students will have an option to choose from a less-paid job helping disadvantaged pupils or widening the social gap and earning good money in tuition industry.
