The rise of private tutoring

With the new academic term in full swing, the tutoring business is also gaining momentum. It is one industry that seems immune to recession with a growing prevalence all over the world.
While tutors once focused on aiding children with learning disabilities or those from wealthy families seeking private classes, they are now being actively used as an almost mandatory guide for all subjects, with Math and Science being the most in demand.
In many situations, parents today consider tutors to be a lifeline. They are willing to pay a premium with the hope that their child has the chance to make it into the ranks of Ivy League colleges and rise above their peers.
Some parents however admit that their choice to pay for tutors is not due to the shortcomings of schools but merely a genuine need by some students for one-to-one time with a teacher.
In the past, students would head from school, revise their current day's subjects and get on with homework for the next day. The routine these days however is drastically changing, where students continue on from school to tuition centres.
A new trend has also highlighted the fact that many students opt to have their homework monitored and aided with the help of online tutors, and in many cases these tutors may be located anywhere from Bangalore to London to Cairo.
Wealthy families are able to afford these additional tuitions but it becomes a burden on the middle-income families and creates disparities amongst children, disturbing social cohesion. It would be prudent for established tutoring agencies to offer a portion of their services to disadvantaged pupils for free and enable them with equal opportunity for admission into top colleges.
Although most established schools prohibit teachers from offering private tutoring, the demand is still rather significant, especially for students seeking to study abroad (UK, US, Canada, etc). "Study abroad" and "tutoring" are high volume search queries on our site too.
Farid Gasim  is the founder of Edarabia.com