So, now we are told 25 per cent of children in our county are receiving extra private tutoring away from their regular school.

Think about that for a minute: one in four kids do not get a proper education under our existing system, or so their parents believe.

A huge number of those children of course will be the poor souls who receive external tutoring just so that they can pass the 11-plus.

Then of course when they get to the grammar school that their parents have chosen, many of those tutored kids will spend the next five years struggling to keep up.

Ironically, some will probably need extra private tuition to keep up.

I was actually even more disturbed to discover that children as young as four were receiving private tutoring in Kent.

Make no mistake there is something not quite right with the world of education and I think that it’s the parents who bear a lot of the blame.

The headmaster of Skinners School in Tunbridge Wells explained on Radio Kent this morning that of the 115 boys he takes in each year, he still carries out another test to find out those lads who ‘need additional support’.

So, in one of the county’s top grammar schools – apparently some parents are tutoring smart kids so that they get better results so they can get into a better grammar – it seems the boys who arrive may not actually be the cream.

The headmaster was unable to say that the pupils who needed the support had been tutored before they got there, but I came away with the impression that even he suspected they were.

But I bet the parents are still so proud that their offspring is going to the right school, even though he (or she) is going to spend the next five years struggling and probably hating school for that reason.

This is wrong for many reasons.

Firstly, tutored, average student X will have taken a place that could have gone to untutored, gifted pupil Y.

That irritates.

Secondly, tutoring is available to those who have the cash and therefore it does reinforce a have-and-have-not society (though I also accept that many parents make financial sacrifice to pay for the tutor too).

Thirdly, there’s the issue of the tutors themselves. Most arrangements are private so it means there is no need for tutors to undergo the normal police checks that teachers must have.

But no one is going to stop external tutoring happening, and here’s why:

Teachers might not like the thought that some of their class are receiving outside help, but if it improves the results of ‘their’ children, they’re not going to complain are they?

A quarter of ‘their’ children might get through to grammar without them making any effort.

Result for them then – especially the ones who are never going to be able to teach English properly (I’ve seen plenty of school reports with laughable English).

Headteachers too will love the fact that their externally tutored children bring a school’s SATS results up.

Our county council will probably not want to discourage private tutoring either.

If they did, parents might expect standards in the classroom to go up – more one-to-one, that kind of thing – which would mean more money and resource.

So, a council that sometimes struggles to give proper support to dyslexic children (I have personal experience of the difficulty in getting a child statemented), might believe it is better to let an army of tutors, paid for direct by parents, lift the educational standards of a county.

And finally well meaning, but misguided parents will always want to spend money on their children’s education.

For many of them it saves them having to spent time with their kids, reading and the like.

Gary Wright
(father of two children aged 14, and 12)

 

The other way of looking at this, is that parents are simply helping their children to reach their full potential, rather than artificially boosting their results as you seem to imply.

Why on earth should parents not spend their money improving their children's educational attainment? Only some kind on damn communist would think that was a bad thing.

Sir

I am one of your reviled private tutors!  I would not be in gainful employment if it wasn't for the deplorable state of the greater part of our country's education system.

In my mind I am only helping students to attain a far better grade, even if in your mind this grade is inflated.  When schools (even Grammar schools) have young and inexperienced teaching staff it is little wonder that parents opt to spend their own hard money to help their children.  Many a time I have heard from parents tales of woe, all to often highlighting the state of educational provision.

At this point I will add that I do not tutor students less than 13/14 years old, and I do not necessarily agree that tutoring 4 year olds is a good idea.

With reference to you point about getting 11 year olds into Grammar School.  There would not be such a clamber for places at these institutions if the remaining state schools (and this does not include the heavily over-subscribed Voluntary Aided schools) were seen to be of a sufficiently high calibre.  Unfortunately, for whatever reason there are a number of schools in every LEA which suffer a bad name and reputation, and the cause of this can be manyfold.

Little wonder then that any well-meaning parent wants to see their child(ren) succeed at their full potential.

As for CRB checks, I have had to get one done in the past, but as a self-employed person it is almost impossible to get such a check carried out on oneself.  Most tutors have nothing to hide, and are very often school teachers earning a few extra pennies in their spare time.  Such tutors already have a CRB check in place!

Clive Brown