The tutoring revolution

Fresh paper, new pens and some smart new duds.

Children across the country are returning to school for a brand new year.  But first there is that little review as teachers prod students to remember what they learned before the long summer gap.

Not every child, though, is playing catch-up. Some spent a good chunk of the summer being tutored to keep up or get ahead.

Again, this past summer, ten-year-old Liam Jeremy attended the Oxford Learning Centre in Toronto's High Park area along with his six-year-old brother, Devon, who started an early reader's program there last year. 

Liam's mother, Pamela Wilson, says Liam has a mild learning disability and she hopes the extra work will make the transition back to school that much easier.

Wilson says Liam initially had a private tutor but came to Oxford last year because he wanted to be around other children.

As for Liam, he described the lessons as "fun, in a hard way."

Franchise boom

Wilson's children are part of a wave of students these days who are receiving what is called supplemental education.

A report by the Canadian Council on Learning says that as many as a third of Canadian parents hired a tutor for their children in 2007, fuelling the growth of franchise outlets such as the Oxford, Sylvan and Kumon learning centres.

These companies now have over 500 centres in Canada alone. Independent models, like the Calgary Tutoring Centre, are also springing up.

In the U.S., the Kumon Math and Reading Centres have been named the top children's supplemental education franchise by the magazine Entrepreneur.

They are also ranked 18th in the 500 top franchise operations in the country.

Spending on tutoring generally has grown between seven and 10 per cent in the last three years, says Sylvan's vice-president of franchising, Curt Hapward. And he expects that to increase.

Across North America, spending on tutoring is estimated at $6-billion dollars annually, although exact figures are hard to come by because the business is difficult to track.

Want more

In addition to these larger, mostly franchised centres, there are the thousands of school-based or individual tutors who offer part-time services for everything from math to writing.

Janice Aurini, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo, describes the growth in supplemental education as a "revolution," created largely by educated parents who feel pressured to help their children compete for the best spots at university.

One of the few people tracking the rise of tutoring, Aurini cites a Canadian Council on Learning survey that found that most students who are tutored are already getting A's and B's in the public school system and have parents who help them with homework.

These parents aren't against public school education. They just want more for their kids.

"Initially, I thought that this was a marker that somehow the public system was failing," says Aurini. "But in surveys and interviews I found that not to be the case.

"In general I see this more as a cultural shift. Kids go to soccer and there's a 'lesson culture' in general. Tutoring is part of that."

Not cheap

As Aurini and other experts see it, parents' expectations have changed in recent years, particularly on the subject of getting into universities. Many now expect their children to go to university and this has created an aura of educational competition.

While tutoring has only seen a big jump here in Canada in the last decade or so, supplemental education is normal in other parts of the world.

In Asia, tutoring is seen as an extension of the school day. Even in places like Morocco, Aurini says about 70 per cent of school children receive some form of extra-curricular tutoring.

Canada, in fact, has actually been slower to expand its use of tutors and there is limited research on how this kind of supplemental education affects the public system.

"Private tutoring has important implications for the educational system as a whole that cannot be ignored by education policies," says Prof. Mark Bray, the director of UNESCO's International Institute for Educational Planning. 

But a paper published by the institute in 2007 says researchers are only now beginning to look into the size and impact of tutoring. While parents with money can help their children get additional training, the paper also says it can "exacerbate social inequalities" because not everyone can afford it.

In Canada, tutoring is not cheap. Centres often offer more than just remedial tutoring in problem areas.

They usually focus on diagnosing a student's weaknesses and offering individual support for organizational and study skills. That can cost upwards of $45 an hour, plus an assessment fee.

Oxford's Little Readers program, for example, runs about $240 a month.

However, those parents who can afford it are prepared to pay because the extra help can cut down on the grind — or the battles — over homework, often in homes where both parents work.

"I've learned that your role can't always be as a teacher," says Pamela Wilson. "The time for family is so short after school."

This expansion of the tutoring business isn't limited to centres or private tutoring. Tony Aitken found a niche opportunity six years ago, selling tutors the administrative tools they need to keep track of students.

His business, The Wealthy Tutor, has held up during the recession, he says.

"We're finding the tutoring business a lot more resilient than the economy as a whole. We believe tutoring is an elastic purchase, the last thing people will drop from their budget."

While tutoring can often boost a student's performance, especially in subjects such as math, Aurini cautions that it is a buyer-beware world because the tutoring business is largely unregulated and those involved can make varying promises about a child's progress.

Learning centres are not required to hire qualified professionals although many do and are run by, or employ, a mix of teachers and university students.

Parents who want to take advantage of these services should first check a tutor's credentials and see how well they fit with their own child's needs.