11th June 2013 9:00
By Blue Tutors
A think tank called ‘The Centre for Market Reform of Education’ is leading a drive to create a National Association of Tutors for the UK. Reported in the Telegraph, membership of the association will not be compulsory, but the intention is to create certain guidelines for parents to help them decide whether to employ a tutor or not.
A leading headmaster recently criticised some private tutors for ‘over-tutoring’ school children and taking away their free time after school and at weekends. It was also reported that some parents seek a tutor when their child is only 3 years old, in preparation for the eventual entrance exams. It is suggested that some there is a significant of amount of ‘preying’ upon anxious parents by tutors who aren’t interested in what is genuinely best for the student.
One of the suggestions is that a tutor should have to agree to a code of ethics to begin to eliminate the possibility that parents and students will be taken advantage of. The other criterion is that tutors should hold a degree in the subject they are teaching when tutoring a student 11 or above, and that anyone tutoring a younger student needs to have a degree.