Private tutoring for school students has exploded in Sydney, as parents seek to give their children the best chance to succeed academically, particularly in the selective school test, private school scholarship exams, and the HSC.
As education editor Lucy Carroll writes in today’s Sun-Herald, outside-of-school tutoring is now a billion-dollar industry. But experts say greater government oversight is needed of what has essentially become a shadow education system in our city.
In a study, the first of its kind, University of Technology Sydney researcher Christina Ho has revealed that between 23 and 59 per cent of year 5 students at some Sydney schools are privately tutored.
Although the study only looked at six schools, it is alarming to hear that half of the students at some high-achieving public schools are receiving academic coaching outside the classroom.
Or, perhaps, if you are a parent of a child in an opportunity class, these figures are entirely unsurprising, and even justifiable.
While the NSW Department of Education has always denied that external tutoring is necessary – or even advantageous – for admission into its selective schools, it is undeniable that children who receive external tutoring do very well academically. And, once enrolled in a selective school, it is easy to see how the concerns raised by the teachers Ho spoke to in her research come to light: a widening gap in abilities among students. Both cohorts may be very bright, but if half the class has learnt the content before at tutoring, they are undeniably advantaged.
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Carroll reports that selective school principals have estimated 90 per cent of their students are tutored. Each year, major coaching colleges share the names of their students who receive HSC marks with the same pride as those students’ schools.
The prevalence of tutoring in Sydney highlights the influence of a less shadowy, and more often than not celebrated, two-tiered element in the city’s education system: selective schools.
NSW has many more selective public schools than any other state.
