31st May 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Research conducted by an internet service provider suggests that many parents feel that the internet has better educational value than a private tutor. Around half of parents surveyed said that home broadband is more cost effective for their child’s education than a home tutor. Parents who responded to the survey cited websites and search engines such as Wikipedia and Google as providing access to essential educational resources. Further, parents said that the cost of home broadband is significantly lower than the cost of a private tutor.
As a private tutor, I read this survey with interest, particularly the section of the findings which claimed that private tuition is becoming less popular as parents begin to realise the value of home internet access. It is widely acknowledged, including in research commission by the Department for Education and Skills, that one in four students in England have now had private tuition at some point during their educational career. This doesn’t sound to me like the tuition industry is on the out. But nevertheless, it is necessary to address the main concern highlighted by this latest research, which suggests that some parents feel that the internet is a much cheaper and faster way to help their child’s education than hiring a private tutor.
Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where you get what you pay for. Of course the internet is an extremely important resource, providing as it does access to large amounts of educational material. But it cannot ever do the same job as a private tutor. In fact, one of the things a private tutor is best placed to help with is teaching research skills, including how to access pertinent information on the net and how to interpret and apply it appropriately. Tutors do much, much more than just provide information. They build skills such as the ability to think independently and deploy information in order to support their arguments. These are invaluable skills which students take forward throughout their educational career. The internet is no replacement for one-to-one tuition.