31st January 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
In recent years the tutoring industry has expanded quickly, especially in the area of online courses and tutoring. Online tutoring has rapidly gained popularity as an effective method of education which is much cheaper than booking a face to face home tutor. As such it has been credited with making tutoring more affordable, and more available to those who would not usually have the opportunity. However, recent statistics show that many children do not have access to the internet at home, meaning that they are not only excluded from tutoring opportunities, but school exercises as well.
The Mind the Gap campaign group has said that over 500,000 children in the UK have no home internet. The group has pointed out that schools are increasingly using technology as part of education strategies which often include homework and extra-curricular projects. This means that children who do not have access to the internet at home are disadvantaged both because they are not able to complete the required work, and also because they are not as familiar with how to use the technology when they are at school.
Mind the Gap are campaigning to raise funds to give more children access to online learning. They are also urging schools to use their pupil premium funds to give more children access to the internet at home. In order for the tutoring industry to really become more inclusive, it is necessary not just to widen tutoring to online opportunities, but to support efforts to make online opportunities to all children.