Due to the increase in class sizes, budgets cuts and lack of sufficient teachers, parents are now employing home tutors or paying for extra classes for their kids for help with their homework, subjects troubling them or even to learn subjects that might not even be offered in school.
Most Parents are faced with the difficult task of choosing a tutor for their kids and have many factors to consider when faced with this dilemma. These include cost, certification of tutor; the specific need required e.g. one to one or group setting etc. can be in tutors home, school or child’s home.
There are different types of tutors available to choose from and I would just mention a few based on people general experiences. Please note that these might not be the case for everyone and would advice for parents to do their research on what suits them best.
- Private tutor certified in education: This would normally be the first choice for most parents because of the qualifications in the specific subject area and certification with an approved body for easy verification. However you’ll be paying top Euros for a tutor in this group. The more qualified the higher the pay. The teacher in the school can be sought for extra lessons however one also has to consider after a whole day at school would the child want to see your teacher after school again. Would be hard for those who already have issues in school, Lang problems and might want someone else outside the setting they are used to.
- A family friend or neighbour: Most tutors here could be graduates fresh out of school looking for jobs, retired teachers with loads of experience or even tutors from the first groups who just happens to live down your street. This would normally be a more informal arrangement and sometimes word of mouth or reference from friends and family would be key factor in your decision in taking up tuition with the tutor. Again, cost depends on qualifications, recommendations, and settings e.g. group work or one-to one. One major issue though tutor may lack experience in teaching higher level skills or skills might not be up to date with new methods of teaching.
- Tutoring centres: Would hire qualified tutors but would be given a timeline to the type of tuition they would want to give and parents have to pay upfront for lessons before they are taken. Fees can be very expensive for families. You also find that kids enjoy going there if their friends are there or they know someone there. It can be very formal and therefore a replica of the school environment. However they are setup to continually assess deficit areas in the child’s learning accompanied by a detailed assessment report.
- Community groups: Most are funded by government and are run by volunteers which could be a mixture of qualified and non qualified tutors who are in turn seeking training of some sorts from these centres themselves. This might not be top of the list for specific learning but would serve for generalised form of learning. Fees are often very cheap and within the range for most families. Lots of play and fun skills would score high for kids with lots of community programs being set up and basic learning skills for adults looking to do something different or need the skill for a new job.
The different groups of tutors mentioned above are just some example of what is available to parents out there. With the fast evolving world of technology, we now have online learning in the comfort of your home in the form of whiteboard, Skype etc this will be discussed in another entry. Feel free to add anything else or something new to the scene.
