What, And Who, Is Tutoring For?

From my experience, I am finding that the tutoring landscape is changing. It might be argued that at one time, tutoring was reserved for just those that could afford extra tuition. This is partly why I don`t like the term `private tutoring`, which amplifies the suggestion that it`s expensive, private and exclusive.

I am finding enquiries are coming from the whole range of families (accounting for the change brought on by Covid-19) and not just the limited range from which they used to come. This is welcome of course, and I hope I am contributing to bringing the advantages of personal tutoring to everyone.

Another change I am seeing alongside this is the reason for seeking personal tutoring. It used to be for extra work, to extend breadth or depth of learning. It could also have been for filling gaps where children had missed schooling through illness, maybe. Now I am seeing families raise issues about the standard of education their children are receiving and are looking for tutoring to compensate for what they see as failings in other educational provision. As a former state school teacher, I cannot completely disagree with some of their comments (even those aimed at teachers rather than the system).

Some of this does worry me though, as I see there is some attack on the personal element in education, i.e. the teacher. Is it justified to generalise either the person or the system, and what is the value of the criticism levelled at the teaching and education? The professional status of teachers is much lower than in previous decades, and there is of course, a heightened sense of vigilance, examination and `right` in society now which leads to some devaluing and deconstructing of education.

From my experience and observations, there are a huge number of highly dedicated, highly professional and totally committed and effective teachers in education today. This is not all of the teachers however. All teachers, and many families, can point to where the system (and policy) doesn`t deliver but can tutoring cure this? Should it? Will it? What can be done to bolster state provided education to a point where it delivers effectively? I am fully aware of the obvious debate here, `What is effective education?` and how this can be measured anyway. On a basic level, is it effective when employers are saying skills of school leavers are not adequate or when there is a hugely active argument about the lowering of standards?

What role then, should tutoring play? Should it `pick up` where another systems `drops` (by design or otherwise)? Should it be a provider of `additional` education, on top of a perfectly good system? Should it replace another system, in whole or in part? Will there always be a completely moral and justifiable reason for personal tutoring to exist? Finally, is there a place to imagine how the best of state education could be joined with the best of personal tutoring to provide this utopic education?