11th March 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
An increasing number of tutoring programmes and organisations are being set up to provide free tuition to students whose parents cannot afford the fees in an attempt to level the playing field. In London, one in three students receive private tuition at some point during their school career, a figure which may rise now that tutoring is becoming more accessible. A number of students from poorer backgrounds now have access to private tutors through charities, school programmes and tutoring agencies which run pro-bono programmes. In addition to children’s education organisations which have been running tutoring programmes for some time, the private tutoring sector is now jumping on the bandwagon by offering free tuition to poorer students.
Private tuition agencies have attracted criticism for elitism, with some charging up to £100 per hour for high school English and Maths. Several agencies have responded by setting up a system whereby for every hour of tuition paid for, another hour is given for free to a student from a disadvantaged background. When signing up, parents are asked if they wish to donate 5 or 10 percent of their fee to a disadvantaged child, a scheme which is so far proving popular. Apart from providing free tuition to those who cannot afford it, schemes such as this are proving popular with agencies seeking to improve their reputation.
In addition to free tuition being offered in the private sector, charities and schools are increasingly finding ways to offer free tuition to students. Tutoring charities provide help with GCSEs and A’ Levels in addition to help with university applications for the poorest students. Such charities are recruiting university graduates on a voluntary basis, offering training in exchange for the services of the tutor. Some schools in poorer areas are now also running their own tutoring programmes, using their pupil premium fund to pay for private tutors to come in to run after-school sessions.