The Financial Times’ Helen Warrell cites findings from our Shadow Schooling report.

The number of youngsters receiving private tutoring in subjects such as maths, English and the sciences has risen by more than a third in the past decade as parents seek help for their children for GCSEs and school entrance exams, new research has shown.

According to the Sutton Trust, a social mobility charity, the proportion of 11 to 16-year-olds in England and Wales who have been given extra tuition at some point in their lives rose from 18 per cent in 2005 to 25 per cent in 2016. In London, the figure is significantly higher at 42 per cent.

Once considered the preserve of only the wealthiest or most ambitious parents, the culture of tutoring is becoming more mainstream. The prevalence of intensive preparation for grammar school entrance exams has caused particular controversy: a 2013 study of pupils in south-east England by the Institute of Education found that 72 per cent of first-year grammar school pupils had been tutored for their entrance test. The Sutton Trust now estimates the British private tuition market to be worth £2bn a year.

The report’s authors expressed concern that this “shadow education system” was likely to exacerbate existing inequalities, since students receiving private tuition are more likely to come from advantaged backgrounds. Of all children aged 11-16, 17 per cent of pupils who are eligible for free school meals have received private tuition at some point in their schooling, compared with 26 per cent of students who do not receive free lunches. Independent school students are twice as likely to have received private tuition than those who attend state schools.

The most common reason given for requesting extra support was general assistance with core schoolwork. More than a third said they had tutoring to help with a specific GCSE exam and nearly a fifth were seeking better results for a grammar school entrance exam. The most popular subjects are, in order, maths, English, chemistry, physics, biology, Spanish and French.

Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust, said that with costs of at least £25 per session, many parents could not afford the benefits of specialist teaching outside school hours.

“No one wants to limit parents doing their best for their children but we need to ensure that extra tuition is as widely available as possible,” he said. “Otherwise, it will continue to widen the attainment gap.”

The Trust recommended that to make the system fairer, the government should introduce a means-tested voucher scheme to enable lower income families to access additional educational support. It also urged private tuition agencies to provide a certain proportion of their tuition to disadvantaged pupils free of charge.

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Read the full article here. (£)

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