18th July 2014 15:00
By Blue Tutors
The Labour party’s latest education policy announcement is that they will seek to create a tier of elite teachers, who would be ranked using a gold standard set by an independent board. The idea is that elite teachers will be highly trained and experienced, and generally raise standards in state schools. It also has the potential to raise the status of the professional in general, giving teachers a more defined career path and opportunities for advancement. In principle, this is no bad thing, but it got me thinking about what constitutes an ‘elite’ teacher, and how this idea translates in the tutoring business.
The world of tutoring is no stranger to the idea of the elite tutor, otherwise known as a ‘super tutor’. These tutors are generally Oxbridge educated, have a long history of getting students into selective schools and top universities, and charge a small fortune. They are particularly popular amongst the wealthy elite in London. If parents can afford to pay for a super tutor then all well and good, but is hiring an ‘elite tutor’ necessarily the right thing to do? Whilst the idea of elite teachers and tutors is admirable in principle, it is not always necessary in practice.
Tutors do not need to be ‘super tutors’ in order to do a brilliant job and make a real difference to a student’s education. Tutors from top non-Oxbridge universities may well have more experience tutoring, and charge less. So called super tutors may trade on the Oxbridge name without having the goods to back it up. They may stay so focussed on exam scores that they forget to offer their students a varied and critical education. Or they may be fantastic. The point is that parents do not have to pay vast amounts to get an excellent tutor. What they do need to do is hire someone who is committed, enthusiastic, and they feel they can trust. And that is something that money can’t always buy.