Anxious parents propel boom in tutoring

Julie Henry:

Private tutoring of children has reached "epidemic proportions" as competition intensifies for entry to the best schools, according to a leading education guide.

Parents are paying up to £60 an hour to prepare children for entrance exams to leading independent and grammar schools.

Experts say the trend is being driven by parents who have been priced out of private education for their primary-school-age children and are using a mixture of state schooling and private tutoring to help win a place in an independent school at 11.

Others are paying tutors to help their children with GCSEs and other exams.

The Good Schools Guide, which will be published next week, has for the first time included a chapter on the booming private tuition industry.

Sue Fieldman, the guide's regional editor, said: "We interview up to 10,000 parents for each edition to ask them about the best schools, and the noticeable trend this year is the use of tutors.

"The traditional route from prep school to senior school is being rejected by an increasing number of families. We cover schools everywhere, from the South of England through to Wales and Scotland, and we have seen this phenomenon throughout the country."

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 6, 2008 12:00 AM
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