Ok, we have to confess it’s not going to be Robert Pattinson or Cameron Diaz tutoring you if you call 121 Home Tutors. We spotted an article in the Independent this week  about students in Hong Kong and how their obsession with exams and private tutoring is turning some tutors into rich celebrities.

The education system in Hong Kong is highly pressurised and students are expected to consistently perform to the highest standards.  This is partly because there is intense competition for a limited number of university places.

Because students (and their parents) are so keen to succeed, it has created a demand for more private tutors. In Hong Kong private tutoring is viewed as an investment in education and the best tutors can command hundreds of dollars for each session. Rather than focussing on the kind of one to one specialised tutoring we offer at 121 Home Tutors, students in Hong Kong tend to enrol in tutorial schools (an estimated 100,000 students every year). They are taught by highly paid, self-styled ‘tutor kings’.

One problem with this highly competitive exam culture and tutoring system is that students often take on more tutoring than they can cope with – often 5 or 6 subjects. At 121 Home Tutors we recommend that students limit private tutoring to one or two subjects, usually their weakest because anymore than that creates additional pressure that can cause more problems.

So the question is will education and tutoring go the same way in the UK? Will we become more competitive now the university system is introducing high fees and changing under our new Government?

A poll carried out a couple of years ago  indicated that a fifth of secondary school students have had some form of private tutoring and at 121 Home Tutors we have seen the numbers of students requesting one to one tuition increase since then. We know in some parts of the country there is a great deal of competition to get into independent schools and we often work with students to prepare them for entrance exams. We haven’t seen much evidence of increased competition for degree places except in areas where there is already a longstanding tradition of high entry requirements and a battle to get onto courses (such as medicine). It will be very interesting to watch what happens as the introduction of higher university fees and potential increased competition starts to take hold over the next couple of years.

If you’d like (non-celebrity!) exam and private tutoring in Manchester and Cheshire for GCSE, AS and A2 Level subjects including Maths, English and Science then contact 121 Home Tutors today.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 15th, 2011 at 12:13 pm and is filed under Choosing a tutor, Entrance Tests & 11+, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.