13th July 2011 9:00
By Blue Tutors
An organisation in Australia is attempting to encourage the government place greater controls on those who become tutors, and develop a better relationship between schools and the tutors who serve the school’s students. Reported on the Canberra Times’ website, the Australian Tutoring Association is concerned that anyone can decide to set them self up as a tutor, despite having no qualifications, and there is currently nothing wrong with that.
The ATA chief executive, Mohan Dahall, said that there is a general lack of information in the country regarding the role of private tutors, and that there needs to be more communication between them and the schools their students attend. Among his suggestions were minimum qualification standards for tutors, the introduction of tutors into schools, and even financial compensation paid to parents whose children have the need to employ a tutor.
One Australian tutor, Karen England, welcomed the suggestions, and said that she is very concerned that some tutors don’t have appropriate degrees, because she has found her qualifications so useful when tutoring her students, particularly when dealing with students with dyslexia, ADHD or autism. However, others have urged caution, and feel that such constraints on the industry would alienate tutors who currently provide a valuable service within a community.