23rd June 2010 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A recent report on the Arab News website tells of how much a private tutor can make in general, but particularly in the run up to exams. Many tutors’ rate exceeds SR 300 per hour (£60). Some families feel that they have to pay the increasing rates, despite paying school fees for their children.
A tutor commented that the money he can make from private tuition is much higher than a school teacher’s salary. Starting at 8am and finishing at midnight isn’t unusual, and in this time tutors can make SR 4,000 a day (£800). However, this doesn’t reflect well on the standard of the tutoring; working non-stop for 16 hours a day, doing such a mentally taxing thing, means that a tutor cannot offer the standard of service of a tutor who does fewer hours.
There are reports of shocking cynicism too. One student said that they had gone to their school teacher to ask a question, and was quickly offered private tuition by the teacher. Another student said that after paying a tutor SR 4,000 for a term of lessons, they were subsequently offered the opportunity to see the questions from the final exam, if they paid SR 2,000 more.